Report: US may slap anti-Russian sanctions over oil price slide

MOSCOW, Mar 20 (PRIME) -- The U.S. is considering introducing anti-Russian sanctions to stabilize the oil market, The Wall Street Journal reported late on Thursday citing sources.

Washington wants to use diplomatic pressure to force Saudi Arabia to return to the output volume it had before the failure of the OPEC+ deal. It also wants to impose restrictive measures against Moscow to influence its decisions, the daily reported without mentioning the exact measures.

U.S. President Donald Trump earlier said that his government planned to interfere in the situation on the crude market in due time.

In 2016, OPEC and non-OPEC states including Russia decided to reduce their oil output to balance the market. In July 2019, they prolonged the deal until April 2020, but earlier in March, the deal members failed to agree on further prolongation. In light of the failure and the global spread of coronavirus crude prices have halved.

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