The warm relationship between Saudi Arabia and Russia is getting even warmer as Russia was officially invited by Saudi Arabia to become an OPEC observer member according to a statement made yesterday by Russian energy minister, Alexander Novak.
The move could eventually lead to Russia becoming an OPEC member. However for now, Russia would only be an OPEC non-voting member.
The main objective of such collaboration between the world two largest oil producers is to reclaim OPEC’s strong control/influence over the oil market and oil prices following the emergence of US as a swing producer which resulted in OPEC losing its once full control over the oil market.
Currently, Russia and Saudi Arabia are the world first and third largest oil producer producing approximately 11,100,000 bbl/day and 10,000,000 bbl/day respectively, while US is now the second largest oil production with oil output of 10,900,000 bbl/day.
