Officials from Russia’s energy ministry last month met with other oil producing countries at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries headquarters in Vienna to discuss a global oil glut that has sent prices tumbling. The secret conversations ended on May 13 after two days of discussions and without the release of a public statement, people familiar with the matter said. The discussions underscore the distance between OPEC and Russia, the world’s largest oil producer, ahead of Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak’s unusual visit to Vienna for OPEC’s semiannual meeting. Though Mr. Novak is expected to meet with OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem el-Badri and some OPEC ministers from outside the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, he has signaled Russia won’t do what some OPEC hard-liners want: namely cut its own production. “At the meetings, it is not planned to agree on production volumes,” Mr. Novak told the Interfax news […]