OPEC's 13 members pumped 25.70 million b/d in the month, up 270,000 b/d from December, while their nine non-OPEC partners, led by Russia, produced 12.91 million b/d, a rise of 170,000 b/d,

"The surprise cut that they have done recently is a really brilliant move that led to stabilization of the market joined by other OPEC members at the most critical time," Dmitriev, who has been leading Russia's diplomacy in Saudi Arabia alongside Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, said at the Saudi Future Investment Initiative conference.

The OPEC+ alliance, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, decided in December after days of heated negotiations to ease their stringent quotas by a collective 500,000 b/d for January, instead of the originally scheduled 2 million b/d tapering.

Saudi Arabia will hold its February and March crude production to 8.125 million b/d -- well below its quota of 9.119 million b/d

In comments, cleared for publication on Friday, Novak also said that Moscow views an oil price between $45 and $55 per barrel as the optimum level to allow for recovery of its oil production,

"The OPEC+ deal has been with us for almost nine months and will continue until April 2022, but it can be extended until the end of 2022," Prince Abdulaziz said, adding that market skeptics and speculators will remain "on their toes".

"Today, my friend and colleague and I discussed cooperation in the OPEC+ multilateral format, and joint action and coordination in the international market.

At the coalition's last meeting Dec. 3, OPEC+ members agreed to raise collective output by about 500,000 b/d from January and to convene monthly to determine subsequent levels.

OPEC+ compliance with its production cuts stayed stable at 100.2%.

In April 2020, the OPEC+ decided to cut their overall crude oil production by 9.7 mb/d over the 1 May 2020 - 30 June 2020 period, in an attempt to reduce the global oversupply and to firm up depressed oil prices in a context of COVID-19 pandemic.