MOSCOW, Feb 20: A Russian cabinet meeting attended by the country’s top oil executives on Wednesday delayed a decision on future export quotas amid growing signs that Moscow was on the verge of launching a new price war with Opec.

Emerging from the closed-door talks, Energy Minister Igor Yusufov told ITAR-TASS that a response to Opec’s request that Moscow extend a current 150,000 barrel-per-day export cut through August will be made “in the nearest future.”

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov opened the meeting by remarking that “there are many questions that must still be decided and discussed,” as analysts predicted Russia was likely to increase its production in April.

Kasyanov hinted while on a visit to the United States earlier this month that Russia could boost oil exports from the second quarter of the year if economic growth picked up in the United States and Europe.

Moscow agreed to the current cut in December only after months of bitter wrangling with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which is concerned by the 7.7-per cent increase in Russia’s production output last year.

Some attending Wednesday’s meeting, however, argued that Russia has not done enough to recapture its share of the global energy market which collapsed following the Soviet Union’s demise.

“We have not yet regained our segment on the energy market,” Interfax quoted the energy minister as saying.

He added that Moscow was seeking a “reasonable compromise” that suits the interests of both OPEC and its own oil producers.

Russia is the world’s second-largest oil exporter, and OPEC General Secretary Ali Rodriguez and President Rilwanu Lukman are both expected here next month to press the organisation’s case to skeptical Moscow officials and oil executives.

The drop in Russian oil exports has produced a glut of crude on the domestic market, forcing prices down and causing a sharp drop in revenue for producers and tax receipts for the government.

“If restrictions are lifted, Russia would regain its share of the international energy market, and would provide support to domestic producers suffering from weak domestic crude oil and production prices as a result of oversupply,” the Renaissance Capital investment bank said in a research note.—AFP