Mr Putin and Saudi leaders haven't talked twice in the same week since April, when Moscow and Riyadh were trying to reach a deal to end a devastating oil price war. US President Donald Trump ultimately brokered a truce between the two, also joining some of the calls.
"If OPEC goes ahead and adds production as scheduled in January, then we will not draw crude stocks anymore," Torbjorn Tornqvist, the co-founder of major oil trading house Gunvor Group, said."I do suspect that the market is pricing now the likelihood that they will postpone the output increase." Other delegates aren't so sure, hoping the oil market will be stronger by early December. They point to signs like rapidly falling inventories aboard ships off China or indications that the winter in the northern hemisphere may be colder than normal.
Mr Putin and the crown prince also discussed cooperation in fighting the pandemic and the possibility of using Russia's Sputnik V vaccine in Saudi Arabia, the Kremlin said.