Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and other top OPEC officials visit the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Published On 4 Jun 2026
Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud has met his Russian counterpart in St Petersburg and called for stability in global energy markets as OPEC+ grapples with disruptions caused by the wars in Iran and Ukraine, which have sent oil prices skyrocketing.
OPEC+ has been mired with unprecedented challenges, with slashed oil exports, and the United Arab Emirates, an OPEC powerhouse for almost 60 years, left the oil cartel in April.
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On Thursday, the Saudi minister and other top OPEC officials visited the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, a prominent Russian economic gathering.
“The situation we’re going through now does make a point here, which is the world needs every molecule of energy, and every form of stabilisation to this energy, because without energy security, you will lose sustainability,” the minister said.
“There are so many moving parts, there are so many unknowns, there are things that you think have become a reality, but then you wake up the next morning, and the reality is no longer a reality.”
Russian counterpart and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak echoed his views.
Russia’s low oil production
“We came to the conclusion that no one really knows what to expect regarding demand at the moment. In other words, uncertainty has increased,” Novak said after meeting the Saudi minister.
Novak added that the OPEC+ was able to offset global changes in the energy sector, nonetheless. “Estimates made just a few years ago now need to be fundamentally revised,” Novak said.
Russian oil production has fallen since the start of the year, Novak said, blaming the decline on unplanned maintenance at refineries. This was the first explicit acknowledgement by a Russian official of lower output, according to the Reuters news agency.
Novak did not state the reason for the refinery maintenance, but Ukraine has intensified attacks on Russian refineries in recent months.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the US-Israel war on Iran and subsequent forced cuts in oil exports by the Gulf OPEC members and former member, the UAE, have rendered their agreements to raise oil output quotas largely theoretical.
Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia, Russia, and five other OPEC+ countries would likely agree to a further hike in their output target for July when they meet on Sunday, quoting unnamed sources.
