The most powerful figure in Russia’s oil industry on Wednesday signalled his steadfast opposition to combining with Opec to reverse the crude price rout through co-ordinated cuts in production. Igor Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and head of Rosneft, the state-controlled oil company, told an energy conference in London that the world’s top producers would not give ground as they fight to hold on to customers. “Who are we supposed to be talking to about cuts?” Mr Sechin said when asked by the Financial Times if he was considering working with Opec, the producers’ cartel, to try to shore up the oil price. “Will Saudi Arabia or Iran cut production?” His comments at London’s International Petroleum Week were his first since some of Rosneft’s Russian rivals last month indicated a willingness to consider cutting production with Opec, when Brent crude crashed to a 12-year low below $30 a barrel. His statement suggests his long-held opposition to output cuts has not been shaken by the worst price rout in a generation, even as Russia’s economy shrinks. While Mr Sechin said a co-ordinated 1m barrel a day cut in output would help prices recover, he gave no indication he thought Moscow should back such a move or join a Venezuelan-led push for action by crude producing countries both inside and outside of Opec.