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Russia reduces oil production in March within OPEC deal framework — source

Russia slashed oil production by 161,000 barrels per day as of March 19

MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. Russia slashed oil production by 161,000 barrels per day as of March 19 against October 2016 taken as a base level within the framework of the agreement with OPEC, a source familiar with official statistics on oil production in Russia told TASS on Monday.

The average daily production in March was 1.51 mln tonnes versus 1.532 mln tonnes last October [a factor of 7.33 was used for conversion into barrels - TASS].

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Russia cuts oil production by 160,000 barrels per day by mid-March

Almost all Russian oil producers reduced the average daily oil production in March 2017, except Rosneft and Gazprom Neft. Rosneft boosted oil production by 10.6% to 582,000 tonnes [4.26 mln barrels daily], net of Bashneft figures. Gazprom Neft increased oil production by 43% to 163,400 tonnes [1.2 mln barrels per day].

Lukoil lowered oil production by 0.9% to 226,100 tonnes per day. Oil production was cut by 3% with Surgutneftegaz to 166,000 tonnes per day, by 3.5% with Tatneft to 79,600 tonnes daily, and by 4% with Russneft to 19,200 tonnes per day. The average daily oil production of Bashneft halved in March versus October to 29,100 tonnes.

Russia undertook to slash oil production by 300,000 barrels per day in the first half of 2017 versus October 2016 within the framework of the OPEC agreement. 100% delivery of the quota will be achieved by the end of April because of process specificities of oil production in Russia, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said earlier. Oil production cut by 200,000 barrels per day is planned to be achieved by end of March, Novak said.

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