Cooperation between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia intensifies amid discussions on how Moscow could manage to support a possible freeze or reduction in oil production, said Monday in Vienna, Russian Energy Minister, Alexander Novak.

Russia’s energy minister Alexander Novak told reporters on that Russia considered oil output freeze to be an effective tool for stabilizing global oil markets, according to Reuters.

After a meeting with OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo, Novak said that they had discussed specific mechanisms of a possible deal between Russia and OPEC. Options other than output freeze were considered as well, quotes Agerpres.

Reduced output in the short term will lead to lower volatility in the market, but in the future would lead to an increase in oil and gas consumption, said Alexander Novak. He added that he plans to discuss the situation with Mohammed Barkindo, Secretary General of OPEC.

Russia is a responsible player in the oil market and an OPEC agreement will allow the resumption of negotiations between countries inside and outside the cartel, added the Russian Energy Minister.

In September, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed for the first time in eight years, to reduce oil production by 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 32.5 – 33 million barrels per day. OPEC estimates that its current production stands at 33.24 million bpd. Since the middle of 2014, the price of a barrel of oil was halved due to overproduction.

On Monday, at the ICE Futures exchange, the price of Brent oil with delivery in December fell by USD 0.17, reaching USD 51.60.