Moscow is being forced to change its energy strategy | Financial Times

Moscow is being forced to change its energy strategy | Financial Times:

Moscow’s energy policy made a sharp transition with two developments last week. The new Power of Siberia pipeline taking gas from Russia to China was last Monday inaugurated by presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and marks a turn by Moscow to the east. Then, at the end of the week, Russian ministers attended the Opec meeting in Vienna and accepted that Russian production would be cut further as part of the cartel’s attempt to stabilise prices. The continued engagement means that Russia — having for decades pursued a fiercely independent oil policy — is now effectively Opec’s 15th member state.

Russia remains a major player in the international energy market — it was a net exporter in 2018 of more than 9m barrels a day of oil and almost 250bn cubic metres of natural gas. But it is finding itself in a buyer’s market that it cannot control.