Saudi Arabia on Friday defended the Opec+ alliance’s decision to cut crude output saying they were doing the right thing to ensure a stable and sustainable market.

Opec and its allies “are doing the right job to ensure stable and sustainable oil markets”, said Saudi energy minister Abdulaziz bin Salman. He is here to prepare the grounds for Saudi Prime Minister and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s trip next month.

Opec+ earlier this month decided to cut the crude oil production quota by 2 million barrels per day, starting in November, to prop up sagging oil prices. Saudi Arabia, which co-chairs the Opec+ alliance with Russia, has been under fire from the US for the output cut at a time many forecasters are expecting demand to rise.

Since the Opec+ decision on October 5, Dated Brent peaked at $98.775 per barrel on October 7 and was down to $91.35 on Friday.

The Saudi minister held a one-on-one meeting with commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, which was followed by a luncheon meeting where oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri and power minister R.K. Singh also joined.

The Saudi minister said bilateral issues were discussed at the meeting. He, however, did not elaborate. He later met Puri separately.

CIL move to raise coal despatches

Calcutta: Coal India on Friday unveiled a plan to speed up transportation to despatch centres, called first-mile connectivity projects.

The PSU has identified 17 such first-mile connectivity projects as part of the third phase of its plan to expand its transportation network.

The projects involve a cost of Rs 11,000 crore with a loading capacity of 317 million tonnes (mt) per annum.

The miner will float tenders for the projects by 2024- 25, and they are expected to be commissioned by 2026-27.

These projects are in addition to the 44 projects identified in the first two phases for over Rs 13,000 crore.

Of the 17 first-mile projects, CIL subsidiaries MCL and CCL will put up six each followed by SECL with three projects.

A STAFF REPORTER