The king of Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, met Venezuela's president on Sunday in Riyadh and discussed ways to stabilise global oil prices, state news SPA reported.
King Salman and President Maduro "reviewed areas of bilateral cooperation… and the latest developments including cooperation for the stability of oil markets," SPA said.
Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said earlier on Sunday that the views of the kingdom and Russia, the world's top oil producer, on the need to stabilise the market "are getting closer".
"We have managed today… through a common meeting to reach a common notion to what we can reach in November," Falih said, referring to an OPEC meeting in Vienna on Nov. 30, when the exporting group is set to finalise a production cut agreement.
Novak, who is in Saudi Arabia on his first official visit as minister, earlier met the energy ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which included key Gulf OPEC producers Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
President Maduro was quoted on Saturday as saying that OPEC and non-OPEC nations were "very close" to an agreement on oil production curbs, Azerbaijan's state news agency Azertag reported.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed in Algiers on Sept. 28 to reduce production to a range of 32.5 million to 33.0 million barrels per day, which would be its first output cut since 2008.
