Russia’s oil output stayed unchanged in February from the previous month, with cuts at just a third of the levels pledged by Moscow under a global deal to reduce production, Energy Ministry data showed March 2.
The country’s oil and gas condensate output remained at 11.11 million barrels per day (MMbbl/d) last month, down 100 Mbbl/d from levels agreed as the starting point for the accord.
OPEC and other large producers led by Russia agreed late last year to reduce their total oil output by almost 1.8 MMbbl/d in first-half 2017 to boost the price of crude, a key source of revenue. Of that, Russia pledged to cut 300 Mbbl/d, with 200 Mbbl/d of reductions in the first quarter. This compares to output of more than 11.2 MMbbl/d in October 2016, taken as the baseline for the global deal.
In January, Russia cut output by around 100 Mbbl/d month-on-month, its first reduction since August. It kept that magnitude of output curbs in February.
Analysts at Moscow-based Sberbank CIB said that due to the gradual nature of reductions, “the average cut over the first half of 2017 from the October 2016 reference month would therefore be just under 200,000 bbl/d, or 99,000 bbl/d in annual terms.”
Reuters uses a barrels/tonnes ratio of 7.33. In tonnes, oil output reached 42.434 million in February vs. 46.992 million in January.
According to Reuters calculations, Russia’s cut from the October level reached 100 Mbbl/d in February, resulting in compliance of just 33%. By contrast, compliance within OPEC is 94%, due mainly to a steep reduction by Saudi Arabia.
Russian oil pipeline exports in February declined to 4.311 MMbbl/d, from 4.409 MMbbl/d in the first month of the year.
Last month, all three top Russian oil producers—Rosneft, Lukoil and Surgutneftegaz—reduced output. However, Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Kremlin energy champion Gazprom, boosted its production by 1.4%, while the output of small producers edged up 0.1%.
Russian natural gas production was at 58.53 billion cubic meters (Bcm) last month, or 2.09 Bcm a day, vs. 66.11 Bcm in January.
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