MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. Russia and Saudi Arabia are interested in ensuring that the price of oil does not exceed a reasonable level, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV channel on Tuesday during the Russian Energy Week.
According to him, the authorities of the two countries are aspire to continue cooperation between Moscow and Riyadh in the energy sector. "We really need to continue to synchronize our work in international energy markets in terms of maintaining the price level, this is important for our economies," Peskov said.
He noted that the budgets of the two countries are calculated on the basis of different oil prices and Russia has "great resistance to oil prices fluctuations." "Nevertheless, together with Saudi Arabia, we are interested in ensuring that this price does not rise above a reasonable level and does not fall below a sufficient level, thereby destabilizing the global economy," the Kremlin representative said.
Answering a question about the prospects of a new alliance in this area, Peskov noted that alliances are formed when interests coincide. "In this case, being the largest oil producers in the world, Saudi Arabia and Russia, of course, have similar interests and this similarity led to the fact that it was Riyadh and Moscow that in many respects became the driving force of the OPEC+ agreement," Peskov said.
According to the forecast of the international rating agency Fitch, the price of oil in 2019 will be at $65 per barrel. For many OPEC members form the Middle East - in particular, for the UAE and Kuwait, this price is quite comfortable, analysts said. The exception is Saudi Arabia, for which a deficit-free budget starts at $80 per barrel.
Saudi Arabia is the largest oil producer in OPEC - along with Russia the country is the leader in the OPEC+ agreement.