Russia plans to meet with OPEC before group’s June gathering

DINA KHRENNIKOVA and ALARIC NIGHTINGALE

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) -- Russia, the world’s biggest energy exporter, will meet with OPEC before the group next gathers in June to discuss whether to adjust production limits, amid prices that are almost half their level of 10 months ago.

Talks with the 12-nation group will take place on June 2-3, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Tuesday in Moscow. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries gathers in Vienna on June 5 with no signs so far that it will alter plans to maintain output amid a surplus. Novak said April 15 that a meeting with OPEC would happen in June, without giving a date.

Brent, a benchmark for Russian crude, collapsed last year as OPEC maintained its output target at 30 MMbpd, saying non-member producers created an oversupply and must help tackle it. Novak met with Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Venezuela before OPEC’s last gathering in November. The four nations pledged to monitor oil markets together without agreeing to coordinated supply measures.

Brent crude futures traded at about $64/bbl in London on Tuesday. They traded as high as $115.71 in June last year. Russia depends on revenues from oil and gas for about half its budget.

The ministry will provide an agenda for the meeting in about two weeks’ time, said Olga Golant, a spokeswoman for Novak.