While OPEC is said to be mostly leaning toward a 9-month extension of the production cuts, Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak and major Russian oil companies discussed last week a six-month extension after March 2018, and all but one company said they were ready to extend, Russia’s TASS news agency reported on Tuesday, quoting two sources who had attended the meeting. A possible six-month extension proposal from Russia is shorter than the market is largely expecting—nine months through the end of 2018. It could also put Russia on a collision course with Saudi Arabia, its key partner in the OPEC/non-OPEC deal to curb production to erase the glut and prop up oil prices. In early October, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was open to extending the production cut deal, but echoed other officials’ comments at that time that it was too early to decide. “If we speak […]