MOSCOW, April 13. /TASS/. The Kremlin positively evaluates the OPEC+ oil agreements that helped stabilize the markets.
"We consider it [the OPEC+ deal] important, this is a confirmation that the oil producing countries — members of OPEC+, and a number of other countries — can reach a consensus, can reach understanding in the name of stabilizing energy markets," Russian presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
"We believe that this deal helped to prevent the oil markets from slipping into chaos and is now helping to maintain more or less stable price dynamics," he said.
The new OPEC+ deal will also help keep oil prices from collapsing, the Russian presidential spokesman stated. "Certainly, this deal will help keep oil prices from falling into a collapse, this is obvious," he said.
Answering a question about whether the deal will compensate for the shortfall in Russia’s budget revenues associated with the earlier collapse in energy prices, Peskov replied that "various calculations are being carried out now, such estimates should be given for the longer term, and this is more of a government's issue."
On April 12, it was reported that OPEC+ countries entered into an agreement to reduce production after intense negotiations. At an emergency meeting, all the 23 countries agreed to reduce production. However, the overall decline will not be 10 mln barrels per day, as was planned, but 9.7 mln barrels, because Mexico has not changed its position and has not agreed to a quota of 400,000 barrels.
A number of countries that were not previously part of the deal, namely the United States, Norway, Argentina, Canada and others, will curtail production by 5 mln barrels per day, according to Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak.