Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said in a Russian TV interview that it was necessary to be “proactive” on the oil market and attempt to bring stability to it, while adding that oil producers do not target prices.

He said in the interview, conducted on Wednesday and aired on Thursday, that the market was unpredictable and “cannot be left on its own”.

“We are not magicians, it is hard to forecast what will happen on the market even in half a year,” he told Rossiya-24 state TV.

Saudi Arabia and Russia have agreed to continue with voluntary oil supply cuts of a combined 1.3 million barrels of oil per day, or more than 1% of global demand, to the end of the year.

The Saudi minister said the need to act on the oil market depended on its volatility. He also said, however, that attempts to target prices had failed in the 1980s.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, speaking in the same interview, said Russia’s deal with OPEC+ had had a stabilising effect.

Abdulaziz said the terms of the deal would be evaluated every month.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Olesya Astakhova; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)