Russia says July oil output in line with OPEC+ deal

Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s Energy Ministry said on Sunday that the country’s oil output in July was unchanged from levels seen in June, in line with an OPEC+ agreement.

The ministry added that its level of compliance with the deal in July was close that recorded in June, when it stood at 99%.

Energy ministry data published earlier on Sunday by Interfax news agency showed that Russia’s oil and gas condensate production had increased to 9.37 million barrels per day (bpd) in July, up from 9.32 million bpd in June.

FILE PHOTO: A well head and drilling rig in the Yarakta oilfield, owned by Irkutsk Oil Company (INK), in the Irkutsk region, Russia, March 11, 2019. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko/File Photo

Oil output cuts, agreed between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other major producers including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, are due to be eased in August.

Under the OPEC+ agreement, Moscow pledged to reduce its output to around 8.5 million bpd in May-July to support oil prices.

The deal does not include output of gas condensate, a light oil.

The cuts under the global deal should be eased starting from August because of a recovery in oil prices LCOc1. Russia has said it would increase its oil production by 400,000 bpd.

The ministry data showed that Russian oil and gas condensate production rose to 39.63 million tonnes in July from 38.16 million tonnes in June, the Interfax news agency reported.

Russia usually produces 700,000 to 800,000 bpd of gas condensate. That means that excluding gas condensate, Russia could have produced around 8.57 million to 8.67 million bpd of crude oil in July.

Russian oil exports outside the former Soviet Union stood last month at 15.72 million tonnes, down 27.1% from July 2019. In barrels per day, exports reached 3.72 million, according to Interfax.

The news agency also said on Sunday that Russian natural gas output reached 50.33 billion cubic metres in July, down 7.9% from a year earlier.