Slowing: Russian production down
Russian output sliding
Russian oil output edged up by 0.1% in July versus June but was still down year-on-year, casting more doubt on the government's target of averting the first annual decline in production since 1998.
Energy Ministry data showed today that oil production stood at 9.78 million barrels per day in July compared to 9.77 million bpd in June, wrote Reuters.
Production was down 1.1% versus July last year, when it stood at 9.89 million bpd. In the first seven months of the year, output was 9.76 million bpd, also down by 1% versus the same period of last year.
Poor output performance in the first half of the year has prompted the economy ministry to cut its oil production forecast for this year to 492 million tonnes from the previous forecats of 500 million tonnes.
Last year, Russia produced 491.5 million tonnes of oil.
Falling oil production has become a major concern of the government, which relies heavily on export revenues.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has offered a series of tax breaks to oil companies to revive production growth and deputy prime minister Igor Sechin has asked oil firms to sustain production levels this year.
On the export front, supplies via oil pipeline monopoly Transneft stood flat at 4.2 million bpd (17.77 million bpd) in July versus 4.196 million bpd (17.175 million tonnes) in June.