Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that his country is ready to sell gas to Saudi Arabia, in a growing sign of cooperation between the two countries.

“Buy our gas and you’ll save oil,” Putin has been quoted by the media as telling Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih, at the launch ceremony of the first loading of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the Novatek-led Yamal LNG project in Russia’s Arctic port of Sabetta.

Leonid Mikhelson, ranked Russia’s richest businessman and head of Novatek which has a 50.1 per cent stake in Yamal LNG, has been reported by Reuters as saying that he discussed gas projects with Saudi officials, but did not divulge details.

Yamal LNG, which is 20 per cent owned by France’s Total, aims to help Russia double its share of the global LNG market by 2020 from about 4 per cent now. Qatar is the biggest LNG exporter, with a 30 per cent market share.

The first phase of the $27bn-worth project was completed in December. Other phases are due to come online in 2018 and 2019. The project will eventually have four processing units, known as trains, with total capacity of 17.5 million tonnes a year (t/y). Three trains will have capacity of 5.5m t/y each and one will have a capacity of 1m t/y.

In late November, Saudi Arabia and Russia successfully oversaw efforts to reduce oil production in a bid to boost crude prices. The Riyadh-led Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and a Moscow-led group of 11 other non-OPEC oil producing countries, unanimously decided to extend the oil output reduction agreement till the end of 2018.

Furthermore, Saudi-Russian relations improved significantly when Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud led an energy delegation to the Russian capital in October, during an official visit.  King Salman and Putin had agreed on joint investment deals worth several billion dollars, included in which was Saudi Aramco signing a memorandum of understanding with Russian investments body Sibur, to jointly explore potential for oil and gas investments.