Compliance among OPEC and major non-OPEC producers reached 120% in September, its highest level since the output constraint deal was launched in January, the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee said.

Russia’s readiness to back an extension of the supply cuts agreement between Opec and its allies until the end of 2018 has prompted oil ministers to seek widespread support for the proposal, Opec’s secretary-general said on Thursday.

Nasser said vast opportunities for collaboration between companies from Saudi Arabia and Russia are created by both the Kingdom’s existing economic pillars and the development and diversification envisaged by Saudi Vision 2030.

WNN - Rosatom and the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KA-CARE) signed a 'program of cooperation' in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy in Moscow yesterday as part of Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud's state visit to Russia. The program aims to develop the intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy the two countries signed in June 2015.

Net foreign assets at the central bank shrank by $8.5 billion from the previous month to $492.9 billion in April, reaching their lowest level since 2011, central bank figures showed on Sunday. They fell 13.9 percent from a year earlier.

The recent steps to increase the transparency of fiscal policy through the publication of the Fiscal Balance Program and the First Quarter Budget Report are very welcome. This greater transparency will help private businesses and investors better plan their investment and employment decisions.

Saudi Arabia’s conventional approach to market management is no longer working: crude has fallen back below $50 a barrel, US shale oil output is again on the rise and Saudi-led Opec, if anything, is worse off than when it agreed the supply deal back in November, having cut volumes for little upside on price.

Directors welcomed the ambitious reform goals announced by the authorities in Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program, and underscored the importance of clear prioritization and sequencing of the planned reforms to reduce implementation risks and give the economy time to adjust. They supported the authorities’ plan to increase the role of the private sector in the economy by focusing on privatization and public-private partnerships, improve the business environment, develop local capital markets, encourage FDI, and support small and medium enterprises. Directors noted that continued labor market and education reforms are needed to encourage private sector employment of Saudi nationals and increase labor force participation of women.

The fund’s half-yearly fiscal monitor report shows that in the past three years a hefty budget surplus in Saudi Arabia has been turned into a deficit of more than 20% of GDP – double the shortfalls seen in the UK and the US during the worst of the global slump of 2008-09.

In the first half of 2015, Saudi Arabia exported on average 4.4 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil to seven major trading partners in Asia, making up more than half of Saudi Arabia's total crude oil exports over that period. Even as global crude oil prices fell in 2014 and 2015, Saudi Arabia increased production and kept its export levels high, enabling it to maintain its market share in these countries. However, long-term trends within Saudi Arabia's energy sector may reduce its global crude oil market share.