Moscow - The vice president of Lukoil, Russia's largest private oil major, said Wednesday it may be best for Russia to join OPEC in production cuts to bolster oil prices slumping amid the financial turmoil.

Leonid Fedun said joining OPEC could be "only good for Russia."

His comments surprised the industry Wednesday. Previous attempts for Moscow to align its policy with OPEC fell through when private energy firms, like Lukoil, increased oil deliveries, analysts said.

"Russia and OPEC are just beginning to cooperate. I see the future of Russia's oil industry and the stability of oil prices depends on the deeper integration between Russia and OPEC. Maybe we are even talking about Russia joining OPEC," he told a UBS investor forum, news agency Interfax reported.

Fedun added that Lukoil and another Russian non-state oil company would attend the next round of OPEC talks in December in Algeria.

Lukoil has said it would cut investments and lower its planned production next year.

Analyst say a decline in oil production is an industry-wide trend in Russia that has only been made worse by the dive in oil prices to under 70 dollars a barrel.

At this price, industry heads complain oil production has become un-profitable particularly under Russia's tax regime which touches well over 80 per cent of overall revenue.

Fedun's words broke with Russian officials, who said this month that joining OPEC was not a good option for Russia.

But Fedun prescribed cuts of 300,000 to 400,000 barrels a day, or about 3 to 4 per cent of the country's production. He went on to suggest that the government renovate its tax policy by allowing the units that would be cut to be free from taxation.

Only last week OPEC and Russia held their highest-level talks ever as OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to coordinate policy before the organizations summit.

Badri said he would not ask Russia to join in production cuts, but exchange market data with Medvedev, who used to chair Russian energy export monopoly Gazprom.

But Moscow's strengthening ties with OPEC on top of news that Gazprom, Iran, Qatar had moved to set up an OPEC-style gas cartel is sure to put Western consumers on high alert.

Sidestepping the idea of cuts, senior Russian officials at an energy conference in Moscow last week brought back an old plan to start oil reserve to help influence global oil prices. (dpa)