OREANDA-NEWS. October 30, 2008.  Russian oil producers are looking to strengthen cooperation with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which could include joining OPEC in order to shape the future of the oil industry and impact oil prices, Lukoil VP Leonid Fedun said. In recent months Russia has launched active cooperation with OPEC, a meeting of which Vice PM Igor Sechin, in charge of the energy sector in the government, recently attended as part of a large delegation. Last week, on the eve of the cartel's extraordinary meeting, at which a decision was taken to slash output by 1.5 mn bpd effective November 1, OPEC's secretary general Abdullah al-Badri met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Officially, OPEC is not going to call upon Russia to reduce output, although he hoped that Moscow would follow the cartel in an attempt to prop up weaker prices.

However, Russia did not support OPEC, while stressing its intention to take "a more active position" on the market in terms of pricing. According to Fedun, top managers of Russian oil companies will participate in OPEC's next meeting in December, including Lukoil president Vagit Alekperov and, possibly, the president of Russia's largest oil company Rosneft. According to him, Russia is prepared to cut production along with the cartel because the production rate is already falling and will drop, according to Fedun's estimates, by 1.0-1.5% in 2009. The Lukoil VP explained that in order to regulate output and ensure the proper number of well shut-ins it will be necessary to make respective amendments to the legislation, for instance, exempt shutdown facilities from asset tax, exempt from MET crude produced after well workovers and make amendments to the law "On Subsoil" to enable oil producers to stop output. "This will make it possible to painlessly resolve all flow regulation issues" – Fedun said.