Russia's oil production in the past few days has recovered to the ceiling that Moscow has pledged in the OPEC+ deal, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday, after output had dropped to nearly three-year lows in the first days of July.
Lower output from Russia's largest oil producer Rosneft resulted in total Russian production falling to a near three-year low in early July, Reuters reported last week, citing industry sources.
Russia's oil production in the first days of July averaged 10.79 million bpd, the lowest level since August 2016, when production stood at 10.71 million bpd, according to Reuters' sources and calculations.
Rosneft's production between July 1 and 8 went down by 11 percent from the average production level in June, one industry source told Reuters.
Production of Rosneft's Yuganskneftegaz unit in West Siberia slumped by a whopping 30 percent in the first week of July from the June average, a source in the industry told Reuters.
Speaking to reporters in Russia today, Novak said that Russian oil production is already restored in line with the plans, admitting that output was indeed lower earlier in July due to "technological processes."
In the past few days, Russia's production has been restored to the levels pledged under the OPEC+ deal, the minister said, adding that output in the second half of July would be higher than the average production in the first two weeks of this month.
In June, total Russian oil production inched up to 11.15 million bpd from 11.11 million bpd in May, according to Reuters calculations of tons in barrels, based on data from the Russian Energy Ministry.
Last month, Russian oil companies ramped up production, while output at fields run by foreign companies dropped by 11.2 percent from May.
Despite the rise in the June production, Russia was still complying, for a second month in a row, with its pledge under the OPEC+ deal in which it vowed to reduce production by 230,000 bpd from October's post-Soviet record level of 11.421 million bpd, to 11.191 million bpd.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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