Moscow will voluntarily cut its oil production by 500,000 barrels a day in March, as previously announced by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak. He claimed the decision was made without consultation with OPEC+ countries, writes TASS.
The production quota between the oil companies will now be fairly distributed according to their level of production. The agency’s industry source assured that the drop in production will be counted from the actual level of production, and not from the Russian quota under the OPEC+ deal.
The parameters of the agreement with the cartel provide that from November 2022, Russia will be able to produce up to 10.478 million barrels per day. Novak announced production figures for January 2023, when Russia produced around 9.8 to 9.9 million barrels per day.
According to Ronald Smith, senior analyst at BCS World of Investments, Moscow’s move may push up both international oil prices and the price of Russian oil from the Urals.
Russia has so far only announced a voluntary production cut in March. The next decision will be made depending on the situation.
Earlier it was reported that in the second half of February a number of negative trends again appeared in the Russian economy. In particular, export earnings have continued to decline, leading to a record federal budget deficit, which is now 14 times higher than the same period last year.
