Bulgaria’s state gas company signed a €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion) contract on Wednesday with Saudi-led group Arkad to build a gas pipeline to carry mainly Russian natural gas.

“OPEC can no longer ignore Russia because of its importance as an oil exporter and its economy,” said Elina Ribakova, deputy chief economist at the Institute of International Finance in Washington. “The Russians will continue doing just enough to engage with the Saudis on oil production.”

Saudi Arabia is sending an ever-larger portion of its crude to China - with the US losing out.

Russian and Saudi Arabian companies are considering expanding existing energy cooperation to include new joint oil and gas, petchems and nuclear projects,

The Alfanar Group, one of Saudi Arabia’s largest industrial conglomerates, has announced that it will set up a renewable energy office in the UK, through its subsidiary ‘Alfanar Energy UK Ltd.’ The new subsidiary will be headquartered in London, tapping into the UK’s highly skilled workforce and creating up to 30 jobs.

Russian President Vladimir Putin struck a deal with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to extend the OPEC+ agreement at current production levels for the rest of this year and potentially into early 2020.

The countries signed an $8.3 billion economic cooperation pact that included a $6 billion deal between Saudi Aramco and the Korean company S-Oil to build an oil refinery and downstream petrochemical facilities in South Korea.

OPEC and 10 non-OPEC partners, led by Russia, agreed in December to cut a combined 1.2 million b/d of production in the first half of 2019.

The Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP), a multilateral development financial institution, forecast in its MENA Annual Energy Investment Outlook 2019 that current and planned energy investments in the region add up to $1trn for the next five years.

"Cooperation will continue between Russia and Saudi Arabia," Ibrahim al-Muhanna said at the International Oil Summit in Paris, stressing that "it is the core of OPEC+ cooperation."