Russian oil output, one of the world's largest, reached a new post-Soviet monthly high of 10.74 million barrels per day (MMbbl/d) in September thanks to foreign-led projects and Rosneft, Energy Ministry data showed Oct. 2.

Output rose from 10.68 MMbbl/d in August and eclipsed the previous record of 10.71 MMbbl/d reached earlier this year, adding to a global glut that has battered oil prices.

In tonnes, oil output reached 43.961 million, versus 45.17 million in August.

Russian oil production has surprised analysts and industry watchers with its almost uninterrupted rising trend despite widely assumed predictions it would fall due to the depletion of fields in West Siberia, the country's largest oil province.

New technologies and active drilling helped production to rise.

Russia has been unwilling to cut output to support the price of oil, which has more than halved since peaking in June 2014 to trade just below $50 per barrel—the level on which Russia's budget is formed.

According to Kuwait's oil minister Ali al-Omair, global crude oversupply is around 1.8 MMbbl/d. He expects oil prices to rise by the end of 2015.

Friday's data showed that Russian oil output under production-sharing agreements, designed in the 1990s to encourage investment by foreign oil firms, jumped 10 percent in September from August to almost 1.23 million tonnes (300,000 bbl/d).

The ministry gave no breakdown of the data for those projects, which include Sakhalin-1 developed by Rosneft, ExxonMobil, ONGC and Sodeco; Sakhalin-2 involving Gazprom, Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi; and Kharyaga with Total, Statoil and Zarubezhneft.

Sanctions do not affect those projects.

Production at Rosneft, the world's largest listed oil producer by output, edged up 0.4 percent.

Pipeline oil exports via the Transneft monopoly stood at 17.784 million tonnes (4.345 million bpd), up from

16.903 million tonnes in August. Gas production was at 47.17 billion cubic meters (Bcm) last month, or 1.57 Bcm a day, versus 43.7 Bcm in August.