Russia and Saudi Arabia head to this weekend’s OPEC committee meeting as the tortoise and hare of a global deal to cut oil supply, with Moscow sticking to a slow and steady pace despite Riyadh’s cajoling. OPEC’s de-facto leader Saudi Arabia publicly prodded the Kremlin to speed up and implement its full 300,000 barrel-a-day production cut by the end of this month, but Energy Minister Alexander Novak reiterated it won’t reach the target before April — four months into the agreement. While this pace has offset the impact of deeper-than-expected cuts by other OPEC members, the need to show unity means Russia is unlikely to get called out for its inertia, said Daniela Corsini, a Milan-based analyst at Intesa Sanpaolo SpA. “Confidence in the OPEC/non-OPEC deal is the most important tool to protect crude prices,” Corsini said by email. “Saudi Arabia will not openly criticize poor Russian compliance as […]