Saudi Arabia: To allocate Russia $1 Bn for joint energy projects
Saudi Arabia will allocate Russia $1 bln for joint energy projects, Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Novak said.
He stressed that Saudi Arabia has already held talks with a dozen Russian energy companies and has certain developments, projects, plans for cooperation.
“Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia has already been to Moscow and St. Petersburg several times, he already had talks with around ten leading Russian energy companies and they already have certain developments, projects, plans for cooperation,” TASS cited Novak as saying.
He also stressed that cooperation between the two countries is not limited to the OPEC+ agreement. “Yes, thanks to the agreement, we began to communicate more with each other, but continuation of our interaction does not depend on the extension of the deal. In addition to OPEC, we have an intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation,” the minister noted.
According to him, the countries could get closer due to common interests, especially in the energy sector, as Saudi Arabia is interested in Russian technologies in oil production, oil exploration and services.
“We have mining, exploration and service technologies that are of interest to our colleagues. Now they mainly use services of international companies such as Schlumberger, Halliburton, Weatherford. Therefore, the more players on the market, the more obvious is the economic effect for consumers of these services,” the minister listed.