Report: Minister cannot confirm Russia OPEC meeting participation

MOSCOW, Jan 29 (PRIME) -- Russia’s participation in an OPEC meeting to discuss oil market steps in February cannot be confirmed now, Energy Minister Alexander Novak told Bloomberg TV, as cited by a reporter on Friday.

“Well, the Russian energy minister wanted to make it clear that there is no confirmed meeting right now, no certainty that there will be a meeting between Russia, OPEC and other non-OPEC producers,” Novak said, as quoted by the reporter who hosted an interview with the minister.

“You know, he made some comments yesterday that he feels were misinterpreted by the market. Perhaps, he thought, the market was overenterpreting the likelihood of the meeting,” he said.

Novak told reporters on Thursday that Russia is ready to participate in a February meeting of OPEC with other oil producing countries. The Russian stock market and global oil prices surged on the back of this statement.

Novak also told Bloomberg TV that Russia can decide to reduce its oil output only if there is a consensus on production cuts between all oil exporters.

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