High oil prices hurting fiscal balance, says Pradhan “We will do whatever is needed to maintain market stability and ensure that there are no oil supply shortages”, Saudi Prince and minister of state for energy affairs Abdulaziz bin Salman said at a petroleum conference in Vienna . Russia , which is not in Opec , has proposed producers raise output by 1.5 million bpd. There are different views on how much to increase production and whether such a move should be gradual, one source said following a meeting of Gulf oil ministers on Tuesday evening. US drillers cut the number of rigs drilling for oil by 1 to 862, the first cut in 12 weeks, according to a weekly report from GE’s Baker Hughes division. On Wednesday, U.S. crude closed at $65.74 a barrel, down from a peak of almost $73 last month, and Brent crude , the worldwide […]