Russia 'should join Opec, dictate price'

Russia should join Opec so that the exporters’ group can control more than half of world oil output and dictate its price, a top executive of the country’s biggest private sector oil company said.

Lukoil vice president Leonid Fedun made the remarks in an interview in the Kommersant newspaper on Wednesday, months after Russia’s flirtation with Opec ended.

‘If Russia joined Opec, which did not happen, we could define the price precisely. We could decide that tomorrow the oil price would be $100 per barrel. Unfortunately Russia’s political leaders did not go this route,’ Fedun said.

Asked a question about limiting the influence of speculators on the market, Fedun said: ‘Russia should join Opec and move to direct contracts. Then we will jointly control 51 percent of world output and we can dictate the price by directive.’

Reuters