Russia’s Oil Production Slips Below 10 Million Bpd

For the first time since July 2020, Russia's crude oil production has slipped below the 10 million bpd mark on Monday, two anonymous Reuters sources suggested.

The decline in Russia's crude oil production is largely the result of sanctioning and self-sanctioning from Russia's usual oil clientele and the logistical issues created by those actions, including payment issues and lack of storage availability.

So far in April, Russia's average crude oil production for the first 11 days of April came in at 10.32 million bpd-a decline of 6% from March levels. But the trend is downward, with Russia's crude production for April 1 to April 6 averaging 10.52 million bpd.

Russia's crude production quota set by OPEC+ for the month of May was 10.549 million bpd, on par with the level assigned to Saudi Arabia.

But Russia's trade surplus for Q1 this year more than doubled from Q1 2021 as oil and gas revenues soared on higher prices, the Russian central bank said on Monday. And Russia's oil and gas revenues in April are expected to come in at an additional $9.6 billion.

The EU is looking to add even more sanctions on Russia, including sanctions on imports of Russian oil, although OPEC warned the EU on Monday that compensating for lost Russian oil barrels-should they choose to go that route-would be nearly impossible. OPEC's March crude oil production was just 57,000 bpd higher than the previous month-54,000 bpd of it from Saudi Arabia.

While Russia's crude oil production dipped, Russia's exports of crude oil rebounded in the first full week of April to the highest level so far this year. Some cargoes, however, are making the long voyage to Asia-leaving the crude off the market for weeks in the meantime.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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