Russian oil producers in the Western Siberian province of Yugra, the heartland of domestic oil output, are ready to restore production curtailed by a global deal, a local official told Reuters on Jan. 26.

Russia and other leading oil producers, a group known as OPEC+, have been curbing their output in order to prop up the market to cushion the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, Russian oil production fell for the first time in annual terms since 2008, declining by 8.5% to 513 million tonnes, or 10.27 million barrels per day (MMbbl/d), its lowest since 2011.

Sergei Filatov, head of subsoil management and natural resources at Khanty-Mansiisk (Yugra), said oil output in the region, which accounts for more than 40% of Russia’s total oil extraction, fell even more sharply by 11% to 210.8 million tonnes.

He said the region, where oil fields are developed by domestic energy majors such as Rosneft, Lukoil and Gazprom Neft, may see output rebounding to 215 million tonnes in 2021, depending on how the OPEC+ deal pans out.

According to Filatov, the region now produces 100,000-140,000 tonnes per day less than in pre-pandemic 2019, when output stood at 640,000-650,000 tonnes per day.

Filatov also said that the scale of production drilling last year stood on par with 2019, around 17 million meters, while the majority of wells—mothballed due to the global deal—would be easy to re-launch.

Some new wells were drilled too but they were not put in production due to the deal, he said. According to the OPEC+ deal, Russia may raise its output by 125,000 bbl/d this month and a further 65,000 bbl/d each in February and March.