Energy Ministry To Establish Coordinating Council For Consultations With OPEC

The Energy Ministry of the Russian Federation will establish a coordinating council to hold consultations with OPEC, Energy Minister Igor Yusufov declared at a press conference today. Major oil and gas companies will be invited to participate in activities of this council. Among the main of their activities will be stabilization of the oil market, in particular through the regulation of prices and volumes of oil production, and the attraction of foreign investors to the fuel and energy complex of Russia. Yusufov stressed that participants of the recent 117th conference of OPEC expressed their concerns about Russia increasing its oil production with the share of member countries of OPEC on the oil market decreasing. It is a well-known fact that Russia refused to sign a joint declaration on oil production restrictions. The Minister proposed to all oil producing companies to increase their investments in the economy of Russia. Yusufov said that OPEC became interested in this proposal. He was quoted as saying that OPEC member countries had also made a proposal to establish a unified organization of oil producing countries of non-OPEC countries under the aegis of Russia. Yusufov said that Russia is ready to consider this proposal if other countries show an interest in it.