The Kremlin said Thursday that Russia does not currently intend to hold talks with Saudi Arabia ahead of a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee of "OPEC Plus" scheduled to be held next week.

The OPEC Plus technical committee meeting will be held on July 14, and the joint ministerial oversight committee of the same organization will be held on July 15.

And this month, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that the OPEC Plus group is expected to start reducing crude production cuts as of August, as previously agreed.

He also said that the global oil market had achieved a balance between supply and demand in the current July and may even face a shortage of crude, adding that no decisions had been taken on any possible amendments to the agreement between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers.

On June 19, Kirill Dmitriyev, head of the Russian sovereign wealth fund, told the daily RBC that he saw no point in extending severe cuts to global oil production, as economies around the world recovered and demand for oil recovered from a crisis. Corona Virus.

The comments of Dmitriyev - a top Moscow negotiator in the oil talks - indicated at the time that Russia wanted to reduce the cuts from August, as contained in the next plan.

 Prices fell

This comes at a time when oil prices fell in Thursday's trading by about 3%, as Brent crude was trading at $ 42.2 a barrel, and US crude was $ 39.53. While investors fear that fuel consumption will fall again due to new comprehensive closures to contain the spread of the Corona virus in the United States.

The "OPEC Plus" group led by Saudi Arabia and Russia had agreed to reduce oil production as of last May by 9.7 million barrels per day, which is a record size, after the Corona virus pandemic dispelled a third of the world's oil demand.

The standard cuts are now scheduled to continue until the end of this July, before shrinking to 7.7 million barrels per day until December.

However, some OPEC members, including Angola, have not fully committed to agreed production cuts since May, before some sources indicated that this country returned to adhere to the cuts.

In this regard, Bloomberg Agency quoted Thursday a source as saying that Angola has sent a new letter to the President of OPEC confirming its full commitment to reduce production according to the target quantity, as well as an additional reduction to compensate for the excess quantities produced earlier, according to German News Agency reported.