World needs access to Russian gas: Saudi

The world needs access to Russian gas, which is among the cheapest on the planet, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said yesterday. Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) could help Saudi Arabia to reduce the amount of oil liquids burnt in the kingdom, al-Falih said at the Russian Energy Week forum in Moscow.

He also said that state-run oil and gas company Saudi Aramco was in active talks with Russia’s independent gas producer Novatek about participating in the next phase of the Russian Yamal LNG project. The Saudi Minister said that Saudi’s oil output has reached 10.7m barrels a day — the joint highest level on record — as the kingdom moves to increase supply to compensate for the loss of Iranian barrels from US sanctions.

Saudi Arabia pumped a record 10.72m b/d in November 2016 shortly before the kingdom agreed to restrict output with its fellow Opec members and Russia. The minister also said that it would pump more in November. While OPEC has so far ruled out any further production increase, reports said yesterday that Russia and Saudi Arabia had informed the United States of their private deal to raise supply. OPEC and its allies have been limiting supply since 2017 to get rid of a glut. They partially relaxed the cut in June.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his country will maintain its dialogue with global oil producers in order to keep oil markets balanced. He also said, at the Russian Energy Week forum in Moscow, that Russia will strengthen its position in Asian coal markets amid steadily rising global demand for coal.