Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani have expressed support for OPEC’s plans to limit the cartel’s output ahead of a crucial meeting this week. In a telephone conversation, the two leaders said the cartel’s efforts were “an essential element” for returning stability to global oil prices, a Kremlin statement said on Monday. “The importance of steps taken by OPEC to limit the production of commodities was emphasised as an essential element for stabilising world oil markets,” it said. The phone call came ahead of a meeting tomorrow of OPEC ministers in Vienna for talks on reducing the cartel’s output by up to a million barrels per day. Mixed signals from OPEC ministers caused fresh volatility on oil markets yesterday, after Saudi Arabia appeared to suggest that Riyadh could live with the cartel failing to agree a cut, saying recovering demand would stabilise prices next year anyway.

Source: Hindustan Times November 29, 2016 05:26 UTC