MOSCOW, December 20. /TASS/. Oil exports from Russia in 2023 decreased by 4-5% due to country’s obligations to reduce supplies to global markets within the OPEC+ deal, Transneft CEO Nikolay Tokarev said in an interview with Rossiya-24 TV channel.
"Russia assumed responsibilities within the OPEC+ to cut the volume of export supplies, resulting in a 4-5% decline in exports. We are meeting our duties, and as a result, there is such a redistribution of volumes in favor of domestic processing," he said.
According to Tokarev, the volume of oil refining in Russia will increase by around 4% compared to 2022, and oil product exports would increase by 13%. At the same time, the volume of oil deliveries through the Transneft system remained unchanged in companion with the previous year, while the volume of oil and oil product exports increased by 4% overall.
Russia began voluntarily reducing oil production by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) from average February values in March, while simultaneously deciding to reduce oil supplies to world markets by another 500,000 bpd in August, in addition to production reduction obligations, and in September began to reduce supplies by 300,000 bpd. This measure was later extended until 2023.
Following the OPEC+ meeting in November, Russia opted to increase oil and fuel supplies cuts from 300,000 bpd to 500,000 bpd until the end of March 2024. The drop will reach 300,000 bpd and 200,000 bpd, respectively, depending on the average export level for May and June 2023.