Russia wants oil price to settle in $40-$50 range

Russia was eyeing up oil prices of between $40 and $50 a barrel on Tuesday ahead of a meeting with leading producers in Doha later this month.

OPEC and non-OPEC producers were set to gather on 17 April to finalise a draft deal between Russia, Venezuela, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to freeze oil output to January levels, in a bid to curb the current glut of supply.

An unnamed source told Reuters that there was now discussion over how long production would be frozen, and how the agreement would be enforced.

“The level of $45-$50 is acceptable from the point of view of market balance; if prices go higher shale oil production could start to recover,” the source told Reuters.

It was also understood that Russia was not prepared to put new projects on hiatus as part of the deal, instead looking at alternative means to regulate its production.

According to figures for March, Russia was producing at 30-year record levels last month with 10.91m barrels per day being pumped.

The state budgets of both Russia and Venezuela - whose economies are heavily reliant on oil - remained at risk since oil prices first began to plummet in 2014.