Alexander Novak confirms that negotiations failed because of the change of Riyadh’s position

Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries, close to it, have dramatically changed the previously agreed position just before the Doha negotiations, and so they were broken down, said the Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak. He tried to be diplomatic and didn’t rule out the continuation of the negotiations, but admitted that now he wouldn’t to assess their prospects "so optimistic". In reality, Russia now demands to first find agreement within OPEC, which makes new possib;e negotiations unrealistic in view of the positions of Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, who didn’t appear at the official press conference, followed the failure of the negotiations in Doha, gave an interview to reporters separately. He reported that in the evening on Saturday the positions of the main parties of the agreement on the oil production freezing were agreed, thus confirmed the Kommersant’s information. "Yesterday, experts of the four countries prepared the relevant document, it was approved by representatives of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Russia and Venezuela, and provided for the freezing of the oil production at the level of January to October this year, as well as the formation of a high-level Advisory Board, which was to include two countries representing OPEC and two countries out of OPEC. The task of the Advisory Board was to monitor the situation and to implement the agreements on the oil production freezing," - he said.