Saudi King Salman, Russia's Putin express 'satisfaction' with OPEC+

Moscow — Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud and Russian President Vladimir Putin both expressed "satisfaction" with the implementation of the OPEC+ crude oil output deal and discussed ways to address the global economic slump in a telephone call Sept. 7, according to a statement posted on the Kremlin website.

The call was initiated by King Salman and comes ahead of a key OPEC+ joint ministerial monitoring committee meeting on Sept. 17, which is expected again to focus on compliance. The JMMC is co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and Russia.

"Both sides expressed satisfaction with the progress of the implementation of the OPEC+ agreement, which made it possible to stabilize the situation on the world energy markets in general," the statement said.

Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed to further closely coordinate their work on production cuts, trade and investments.

Saudi and Russian leaders have also discussed joint ways to overcome negative consequences of the coronavirus pandemic on the world economy and finances, the statement said.

Earlier in the day, Russian energy minister Alexander Novak said that Russia's adherence to production cuts in August was "close to 100%."