Russian President Vladimir Putin said he agreed with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to extend the OPEC+ deal at current production levels for the rest of this year and potentially into early 2020.
The comments, at last week's Group of 20 summit in Osaka, all but make the outcome of the OPEC meeting July 1-2 in Vienna a foregone conclusion, and further reinforce Putin's role as the ultimate policymaker within the group.
Saudi Arabia and Russia ended years of animosity in 2016 to join forces to manage the global oil market in an effort to prop up prices. The current version of the deal by the group known as OPEC+ calls for production cuts of 1.2 million barrels a day, which were due to expire at the end of June.