MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/. Russia’s Energy Ministry has raised the forecast for oil production in 2018 to 551 mln tonnes and to 555 mln tonnes in 2019, Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters on Wednesday.
"Due to the recent decision on the OPEC+ deal on the gradual increase in oil production, we revised our forecast for oil production in 2018 and increased it by about 3.5 million tonnes to 551 million tonnes. In 2019, oil production, according to our forecast, will reach about 555 million tonnes," he said.
The minister noted that these are preliminary estimates.
"A lot will depend on the dynamics of the market and the need to adjust our actions," he added.
In June, the countries participating in the OPEC + agreement decided to mitigate the existing oil production restrictions and raise total production by 1 million barrels per day. By doing so, they expect to return to a 100% compliance with their obligations on production restriction. In recent months, the over-fulfillment of the agreement was at 150%. That means that oil production was reduced by 2.8 million barrels per day instead of 1.8 million barrels per day, as stipulated in the agreement.
Not all the participants of the agreement (in total 24 countries are involved), but only a few countries, including Russia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait have the potential to increase production.
In July, Russia planned to boost production by 200,000 barrels per day.