Saudi Arabia and Russia announce new oil production cuts

Saudi Arabia and Russia announce new oil production cuts

Saudi Arabia and Russia will extend or make additional cuts to oil production in August, the two most powerful members of Opec+ said on Monday, as they scrambled to boost the price of crude.

Saudi Arabia’s state news agency, citing an official source, said the kingdom would extend the 1mn barrels a day production cut announced last month for July into August, while Russia’s deputy prime minister and top energy official Alexander Novak said Moscow would also make a “voluntary” supply cut of an additional 500,000 b/d next month. Oil prices rose slightly on the news.

The move by the Opec+ leaders, made outside of a formal meeting of the group, comes as they have struggled to boost the price of crude oil that has fallen sharply from its peak last year in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Having briefly risen above $130 a barrel last March, oilis now trading closer to $75 a barrel, despite a series of announced production cuts by the group that started in October last year, with traders focusing on high inflation and a potential recession in many large economies.

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman has been at the forefront of efforts to