Thursday’s videoconference is part of a series of talks on stabilizing a market, where oil prices have more than halved since the start of the year amid a pricing war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. The U.S. is the world’s top producer now and the slide in crude prices is causing huge financial damage to companies in the oil patch. Last week, President Vladimir Putin said he supported an overall cut of about 10 million barrels a day. “We are ready for agreements with partners and within the framework of this mechanism - OPEC-plus — and we are ready for cooperation with the United States of America on this issue,” Putin said. “According to preliminary estimates, I think that we can talk about a reduction in the volume of about 10 million barrels per day, a little less, maybe a little more,” he added.-AP

Source: The Standard April 09, 2020 13:41 UTC