Russia hints OPEC supply glut will end soon

OPEC, the Middle East-led oil cartel currently flooding the market with oil to rid the market of high-cost rivals, may have to shelve its low oil price policy within months, according to Russia's energy minister.

Arkady Dvorkovich, the deputy prime minister, said the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries themselves were now suffering from their attempt to flush out rivals and could not handle the pain of low crude prices forever, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

"I don't think they really want to live with low oil prices for a long time. At some point it is likely that are going to have to change policy. They can last a few months, to a couple of years," he told the paper.

Saudi Arabia, the main power behind OPEC, has refused to trim output to unless non-OPEC producers join in, expressly a message to Russia, as the world's biggest oil producer.

Moscow has engaged in constant talks with the cartel to attempt to change policy but Dvorkovich would not admit whether he planned to make a deal with the Saudis.

"Our consultations do not imply directly that we are going to see any coordinated action. Perhaps 'yes', perhaps 'no', most likely 'no'," he said. "We are sending signals to each other."

In August, it was revealed that Opec's oil output had surged to its highest in more than three years.

Against a backdrop of oil prices sliding back around $50 a barrel, the August market report from the cartel showed almost a 101,000-a-day increase increase in output to 31.5m barrels per day (mb/d) in July, thanks to Iran's biggest contribution since 2012.

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