Itar Tass cited Mr Igor Sechin Deputy Prime Minister as saying that Russia is not ready yet to become a member of OPEC but it is going to discuss cooperation with the organization’s secretariat.

Mr Igor Sechin said “They are offering us to join, but we still believe that, at the first stage, while we are yet to grasp the fine details of OPEC’s operation, it is desirable to have something like an observer’s position. He said that I think that coordination of work with the OPEC secretariat might become one of the variants, which is practically the same. He recalled that OPEC did not envisage observer status.”

Mr Sechin said that the next OPEC meeting would take place on 15 March, and Russia had been invited to participate with the right to vote at this meeting. It is interesting work for Russia. It is, in fact, a new world where we have not entered before.”

He said that OPEC countries support the market actively enough and we believe that they contribute to fair pricing.

Mr Sechin said “Our proposals on this issue have been submitted. We submitted a memorandum on cooperation between Russia and OPEC. We are interested most of all in forecasting the situation on the market current, short-term and long-tem forecasting, the study of energy security, access to new technologies - and OPEC countries have all of that. He added that many professionals work in OPEC with whom we maintain contact. Russia will certainly attend the next meeting.”

(Source from Itar Tass)