Trump thanks Putin, Saudi Crown Prince on oil deal
Washington, April 13
US President Donald Trump has thanked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud for striking a “big” deal with other major crude producers to slash oil production in a bid to stabilise a market that has been jolted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Deal to save millions of US jobs: Russia
The global oil production deal clinched at the weekend will help to establish a price floor and help to save millions of jobs in the United States, senior Russian officials said on Monday. Dmitriev, one of Moscow’s top negotiators, and whose fund shared the cost of Russia’s medical help for Washington, believes that the oil deal would help to save more than 2 million U.S. jobs, he said. “This is an example of us working together for the best of our nations,” Dmitriev said. Without the deal, oil prices might have collapsed to less than $10 a barrel from more than $30 now, he added.
An oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic had threatened to put producers in the US out of business, jeopardising the jobs of thousands of Americans. This forced President Trump to intervene.
Members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their allies announced on Sunday that they have agreed to slash production by 9.7 million barrels a day in May and June. The slashing of the global output by about 10 per cent is among the deepest cuts ever agreed to by the world’s oil producers.
Trump spoke with the two leaders over phone, the White House said on Sunday. In separate readouts of the call, the White House said Trump welcomed the commitment by Russia and Saudi Arabia to return oil production to levels consistent with global energy and financial market stability.
The top oil-producing countries agreed to reduce output in order to boost prices that went down due to the new coronavirus crisis and a Russia-Saudi price war. Trump hailed the agreement as “great deal for all”. —PTI
