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Russia’s oil production down 9% in April, back to early 2021 levels

Earlier, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov specified that Moscow might lose up to 17% of oil production in 2022 due to sanctions

MOSCOW, April 29. /TASS/. Russia’s average daily oil and gas condensate production amounted to 1.372 mln tonnes from April 1 to 29, 2022, down by almost 9% compared with March when average daily production of crude oil totaled 1.504 mln tonnes, a source familiar with official oil production statistics told TASS.

Output only slipped by 0.33% in March compared with February. The decrease reached 6% in first ten-day period of April, and it accelerated to 7.5% by the middle of the month. Russia has mainly gradually increased the production of crude oil since last spring. However, the country faced massive international sanctions due to the situation in Ukraine in March 2022. Sanctions prohibit investments in exploration, production and refining of crude in Russia. Moreover, many western companies and traders refuse to purchase Russian oil. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov confirmed earlier that Moscow might lose up to 17% of oil production in 2022 due to sanctions.

Russia participates in the OPEC+ crude production cap agreement. However, in January 2021 it was given the right to boost output within a gradual easing of restrictions. For example, the agreements enabled Russia to increase crude production by 125,000 barrels per day last January, by another 130,000 barrels per day each month in February-April, and by another 38,000 barrels per day in May-July. Russia increased production by 100,000 barrels per day in August-December as agreed by the OPEC+ deal, with the same increase rates to persist in January-May 2022.

In February, Russia’s oil production rose by almost 10% compared with January 2021 as average daily output totaled 1.371 mln tonnes, whereas by the end of April it virtually returned to the level of 1.5 years ago. In March, Russia was to produce no more than 10.331 mln barrels per day (excluding gas condensate) in accordance with the deal, in April - no more than 10.549 mln barrels per day.

If the Russian oil production statistics is recalculated in barrels at the coefficient used for Russia’s Urals oil (7.33), the country’s average daily output in April 2022 amounted to 10.057 mln barrels compared with 10.05 mln barrels in December 2020 including gas condensate. Russia’s average gas condensate production per month amounted to 800,000-850,000 barrels per day.

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