Russia to Work With OPEC to Stabilize Oil Prices, Medvedev Says

By Steven Bodzin and Lyubov Pronina

Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Russia will coordinate with members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries including Venezuela to keep oil prices from being “too low or speculatively high,” President Dmitry Medvedev said.

Major price swings aren’t in the interest of either oil- producing or consuming countries, Medvedev said yesterday in a Caracas ceremony where he and Venezuela President Hugo Chavez signed energy accords. He said Russia would “coordinate fundamentally with Venezuela” and other OPEC nations, without specifying how.

“We will be coordinating, but it doesn’t mean that we’ll be colluding, Medvedev said. Stable oil prices ‘‘are important for us and important for our economy, just as they are for the economy of Venezeula and other countries.”

Russia is the world’s second-biggest oil producer after Saudi Arabia and isn’t a member of OPEC, a cartel that produces about 40 percent of the world’s oil.

Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said Russia prepared a memorandum of understanding with OPEC that will let them share data and work together on oil forecasting. OPEC will consider the memo at an upcoming meeting, he told reporters after the ceremony.

Venezuela supports cutting oil production by at least a million barrels a day, Venezuelan Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said in response to questions. If the cuts fail to stabilize prices, OPEC will keep reducing output, he said.

“Cutting has to happen,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Bodzin in Caracas at sbodzin@bloomberg.net.