Russia Reaffirms Commitment to Voluntary Cuts in Oil Production
Russia reaffirms its full commitment to and implementation of its voluntary cut in oil production, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters.
“Given the unfounded speculation in the press regarding oil production levels, Russia reaffirms its full commitment to and implementation of voluntary oil production cut levels,” he said.
Novak emphasized that the target level of voluntary production cuts in Russia is 500,000 barrels from the February level by the end of 2023, and also added that monitoring of the fulfillment of these obligations will be carried out using independent sources.
In addition, the Deputy Prime Minister commented on media reports of an increase in exports, based on data from the monitoring of sea shipments.
“Journalists do not take into account the fact of a significant reduction in pipeline supplies to the EU by more than two-thirds, which was only partially offset by maritime exports,” Novak said.
Bloomberg reported earlier this week, citing vessel tracking data, that offshore exports of Russian oil in the last week of April rose by 680,000 bpd to 4.08 million bpd, a four-week average almost unchanged. dropping slightly to 3.45 million barrels per day. Thus, it was noted in the material, two months after the promise of the Russian Federation to reduce production by 500,000 barrels per day, there are no obvious signs of the implementation of this decision. Neither maritime exports nor refinery utilization have declined significantly, the agency said.
Novak said in February that Russia would voluntarily cut oil production by 500,000 barrels per day from February levels in March, which would help restore market relations amid the introduction by some countries of a price ceiling mechanism for Russian oil and oil products. The cuts were then extended until June, and later until the end of the year. At the end of April, Novak said that in April Russia reached the declared volume of voluntary reduction in oil production, companies are fulfilling their obligations to reduce it by 500,000 barrels per day in total.
