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Before the plenary session of the Russian Energy Week International Forum, Vladimir Putin met with OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo.

Earlier, on the sidelines of the forum, the President spoke with the heads of relevant foreign agencies and international energy organisations.

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Meeting with OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Secretary General,

I am very happy to welcome you again in Moscow for Russian Energy Week. We have record representation in the number of participants, companies and countries. As I have just mentioned to my colleagues, we believe this is very important for everyone in this market.

Mr Secretary General, we highly appreciate your personal contribution to the development of relations between Russia and OPEC. The energy dialogue between your organisation and countries that are not OPEC members is producing positive results both for us and the entire world energy market, that is, for the entire world economy.

I know that on September 30 you and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak took part in the special session of the Valdai forum on the world energy market that is currently underway in Sochi.

I am confident that such dissemination of information, including among people who do not deal directly with energy, is very important for explaining our common stand on the development of world energy markets.

The recent attack on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia certainly triggered a hike in oil prices, but I was sure that everything would return to today’s indicators because there are no serious grounds for fundamental market fluctuations. They do not exist partly owing to our common efforts to stabilise the world market.

We hope for the firm and consistent position of the participants in the OPEC+ format. We know that OPEC pursues a consistent approach on observing a certain discipline in fulfilling all of our commitments. As you know, for its part, Russia is abiding by all of our agreements and this brings a common result, common success.

I would like to emphasise again that we are happy to see you in Moscow.

OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo: Thank you very much, Mr President, for this distinct honour to be once again received by your good self in Moscow during this very important energy conference, the Russian Energy Week.

And, this year as you have rightfully said, for the first time I’ve also participated in the Valdai, especially with my very good friend, Alexander Novak.

Mr President, on behalf of OPEC and on behalf of OPEC+, we wish to extend our deepest gratitude for the leadership that you have continued to provide to us.

As recently as June, this year, at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, you so kindly met with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman, and that meeting, Mr President, was extremely important to us.

It paved the way for our agreements in July. And I also recall that previous to that, in 2016, we met during the G20 in Hangzhou, China, with Crown Prince Mohammad, which also paved the way to the declaration of cooperation.

In the current circumstances that we have found ourselves, with the hightened geopolitical tensions in the region that are impacting on the oil market and on our work, we look up to you to continue to provide that leadership.

The world is continuously being fragile, fragmented, and this is very scary for us. In just a matter of minutes, we lost five percent of the total world oil production: 5.7 barrels a day. It’s the highest loss that we have seen in the last 40 years. This is very scary to us.