"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

State-run oil giant Saudi Aramco is working to determine the exact size and resource volume of the new finds,

"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.

In a joint statement the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) and the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) launched the ‘Aber’ project, which seeks to evaluate the feasibility of issuing a digital currency for use between the two central banks.

The circular carbon economy concept has been endorsed by G20 member states but has yet to be put into practice, and the kingdom has not revealed any timelines or targets associated with the plan.

Saudi Arabia was catching up with Russia which has exported about 1.7 million bpd of oil to China so far in 2020, with Iraq at a third place with about 1.2 million bpd.

The Kingdom remains Russia’s strategic partner. We are looking forward to a long-term partnership with Saudi Arabia on the Sputnik V vaccine.