Responding to a decision by OPEC Wednesday to reduce crude output to lift prices, Novak said Russia was ready to cut its own oil production by 300,000 barrels a day next year.

"Russia will progressively reduce its oil production by 300,000 barrels a day in the first half of 2017," Novak was quoted by the state agency Ria-Novosti as saying, adding the move was conditional on the OPEC decision being "upheld."