Russia’s Oil Output Remains Flat At 10.91 Million Bpd

Russia’s crude oil production was flat at 10.91 million bpd in September compared to August—staying at the lowest levels for 2017, as maintenance at some fields affected production, according to data by the Russian Energy Ministry compiled by Reuters.

Russia’s August and September oil production level was the lowest since the 10.71 million bpd it produced in August 2016.

The daily oil production in September 2017 was down by 3 percent compared to the October 2016 levels, which OPEC and non-OPEC countries part of the production cut deal had used as the baseline for the reductions.

Non-OPEC Russia, like OPEC’s de facto leader Saudi Arabia and most of the other cartel members, entered the joint deal at a very high level of production, which took much of the sting out of the cuts. In the last quarter of 2016, Russia’s production hit a post-Soviet era high, while year over year in 2016, production grew to 10.96 million bpd, from 10.72 million bpd in 2015.

Russia’s pledge in the OPEC/non-OPEC deal is to shave off 300,000 bpd from the October 2016 level, which was the highest in almost 30 years.

Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on September 21 that Russia would be exceeding its share of the output cuts for September, due to maintenance works.

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“We are well below, due to maintenance works at some of our enterprises, including Sakhalin-1,” TASS news agency quoted Novak as telling reporters. 

Sakhalin-1 is operated by ExxonMobil.

While output at oil sites operated by foreign oil majors under production sharing agreements dropped by 39 percent in September over August, Russian companies boosted their domestic production. Output at the biggest oil firm Rosneft increased 1.2 percent to 3.82 million bpd, and production at no.2 Lukoil inched up 0.7 percent to 1.64 million bpd, according to Energy Ministry data, cited by Reuters.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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