Russian oil companies are willing to continue cooperation on output with other countries within the OPEC/non-OPEC production agreement, but have yet to discuss an output cut or concrete volumes, officials said following a meeting with energy minister Alexander Novak on November 8, Platts reported.
«We discussed possible cooperation with other countries and agreed that cooperation is necessary», Ravil Maganov, 1st executive vice president of Lukoil, told reporters after the meeting.
When asked whether Lukoil would be willing to cut output, he said: «We have not discussed that, but I am not ruling it out». He added that the discussion on November 8 did not include concrete output figures.
Russneft President Evgeny Tolochek said that the company would be willing to cut if it is beneficial to the market, but said companies did not discuss a cut during the meeting.
Other Russian energy companies represented at the meeting included Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, Tatneft, Transneft, Novatek and Surgutneftegaz. Alexander Novak traditionally discusses Russia's position with companies ahead of meetings of the OPEC/non-OPEC deal JMMC, of which he is a co-chair.
The next JMMC meeting took place on November 11, when the group how was expected to discuss the current market situation and possible scenarios and actions for 2019.
