Russia and Saudi ‘very close’ to oil deal, Moscow envoy says

Saudi Arabia and Russia are close to a deal on oil output cuts to reduce a global glut, a top Russian oil negotiator said on Monday, but details such as how to share out production curbs remained unclear ahead of talks planned for later this week.

Riyadh and Moscow blamed each other for the failure and launched a battle for market share, sending oil prices to their lowest in two decades that has strained budgets of oil producing nations and hurt higher-cost producers in the United States.