Putin starts war on shale oil

Putin’s visit: Putin touring the stock company Polyot which manufactures parachute systems, during his working visit to Ivanovo, a town some 300 km outside Moscow on Friday. — AFP

MOSCOW: At 10:16 am on a wet and dreary Friday morning, Russia’s energy minister walked into Opec’s headquarters in central Vienna knowing his boss was ready to turn the global oil market upside down.

Alexander Novak told his Saudi Arabian counterpart Prince Abdulaziz Salman that Russia was unwilling to cut oil production further. The Kremlin had decided that propping up prices as the coronavirus ravaged energy demand would be a gift to the US shale industry. The frackers had added millions of barrels of oil to the global market while Russian companies kept wells idle. Now it was time to squeeze the Americans.