What Saudi Arabia and Russia do next
The Opec+ heavyweights underestimated Covid-19’s impact on demand. It may be too late for them to staunch the bleeding
“Russia and Saudi Arabia will have to talk to each other—this [situation] is much more dramatic than they expected two weeks ago.” So says Per Magnus Nysveen, head of analysis at Oslo-based consultancy Rystad Energy. But it remains doubtful whether the erstwhile Opec+ partners, having released the genie from the bottle, can put it back in. “Both the NOCs and the IOCs are still in the shock phase. They do not know what to do,” says Nysveen. “They are almost behaving just as they have done before. And they have had some scope to do so before all storage is filled up. “They are only now thinking: what should we do? They are taking some practical measures, e.g. taking as many platforms as they c
Also in this section
24 December 2025
As activity in the US Gulf has stagnated at a lower level, the government is taking steps to encourage fresh exploration and bolster field development work
23 December 2025
The new government has brought stability and security to the country, with the door now open to international investment
23 December 2025
A third wave of LNG supply is coming, and with it a likely oversupply of the fuel by 2028
22 December 2025
Weakening climate resolve in the developed world and rapidly growing demand in developing countries means peak oil is still a long way away
