The leaders of the United States and Russia did not discuss oil prices or the OPEC+ deal at their summit in Geneva on Wednesday, Vladimir Putin’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.
Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden did not discuss Venezuela, the OPEC member under U.S. sanctions exempted from the OPEC+ alliance’s cuts, either, Peskov told Russian reporters in Moscow on Thursday, as carried by the TASS news agency.
The two leaders, however, did discuss Iran and the ongoing talks about the U.S. and the Islamic Republic returning to the so-called nuclear deal, which would ultimately lead to lifting of the U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil exports.
“There is certain progress,” Peskov told reporters, adding that Moscow hopes that “we will manage to get the situation out of its current state.”
President Biden on Wednesday also asked Putin how he would feel if someone carried out a ransomware attack on Russian oil pipelines.
But Biden and Putin didn’t discuss oil prices or the OPEC+ deal, Peskov said, “No, this topic was not discussed.”
Since taking office in January, President Biden has not publicly commented on the international oil prices or the OPEC+ group’s supply-fixing efforts. This approach contrasts with the one of his predecessor, President Trump, who used to regularly take to Twitter to slam OPEC for its actions and at the height of the pandemic last year rallied Saudi Arabia and Russia to return to their OPEC+ agreement they had broken up for a month.
Nord Stream 2 was also reportedly not part of the Biden-Putin summit, according to Natural Gas World.
Germany, the end-point of the pipeline, has always looked at the Russia-led project from an economic standpoint, while the United States, several European countries, including the Baltic states, Poland, and the European Union (EU), have expressed concern about Russia using gas sales and its gas monopoly Gazprom as a political tool.
But last month, the U.S. said it would waive sanctions about to be imposed on Germany-registered Nord Stream 2 AG, the operator of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline project.
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By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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Moreover, Biden wouldn‘t have wanted to raise energy issues where Putin has the upper hand with Russia being the world’s energy superpower, its great influence in the market through its association with OPEC+ and the fact that Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is virtually complete despite the United States’ efforts to block its construction.
However, Iran’s nuclear deal is a different matter because of the involvement of both the US and Russia in the P 5+1 negotiations in Vienna. Putin’s Russia has some influence in Tehran and can therefore contribute to a settlement.
However, there could never be a lifting of US sanctions against Iran even by 2023 or ever. The reason is that the positions of the United States and Iran are irreconcilable.
Dr Mamdouh G Salameh
International Oil Economist
Visiting Professor of Energy Economics at ESCP Europe Business School, London