MOSCOW, April 27: Opec Secretary-General Ali Rodriguez paid a whistle-stop visit to Russia on Saturday but failed to secure any public commitment that the world’s second largest oil exporter would hold on to export curbs.

A high-ranking source in Russia’s Energy Ministry told Reuters Rodriguez arrived in Moscow on Saturday morning, met Russian Energy Minister Igor Yusufov and left for Vienna shortly afterwards.

The oil export limits were not on the agenda because Russia has not taken any decision so far, the source said.

We only discussed the cooperation between Russia and Opec in light of Rodriguez’s possible decision to leave Opec to become head of Venezuela’s state oil company (Petroleos de Venezuela in Caracas).

We also discussed the bilateral cooperation between the two producers, the source said. He declined to comment further.

The cartel of mostly Middle Eastern exporters persuaded Russia, which is not an Opec member, to join it in restricting oil exports from January this year, to help put a brake on the fall in prices at the end of last year.

Non-Opec Mexico and Norway also cut output under the deal.

But crude prices have jumped by 35 per cent since then and Russia has said its export cut of 150,000 barrels per day is unlikely to be extended beyond June. Opec, though, has said its stringent curbs may last all year as demand growth remains weak.

On Friday, industry sources said Rodriguez’s trip could be linked to Russia’s decision not to extend the cuts and said Moscow wanted to give Opec the news “face to face”.

Russia’s formal decision is expected by mid-May, when the government meets private oil firms. Many analysts say even a verbal commitment to extend oil curbs into the third quarter is highly unlikely as the government has recently come under unprecedented pressure from private firms.

The head of Russia’s second largest oil producer YUKOS, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, said this week Moscow had lost some of its market share to its Caspian rivals, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, due to cuts he described as “ridiculous”.

Moscow all but abandoned the agreement in March when unofficial data showed exports reaching their highest level ever, more than compensating for any reductions made in January.

Russia’s oil industry is still recovering from a drastic fall in output after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Rodriguez took up the job in charge of Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. this week, but has said he would continue to act as Opec Secretary-General until June 26 when Opec ministers will discuss a replacement.—Reuters