Russian Oil Has `Peaked,’ Billionaire Vekselberg Says

(Bloomberg) — Oil output in Russia, the world’s biggest supplier after Saudi Arabia, has “peaked” and may decline in the coming years, said billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, an owner of BP Plc’s venture TNK-BP.

Russian companies need tax breaks to spur exploration and development of new fields to revive growth, Vekselberg told an American Chamber of Commerce conference in Moscow today.


Oil output is falling for the first time in a decade as Soviet-era wells dry up and the costs of developing harder-to- reach deposits surge. Russia pumped 9.76 million barrels a day in March, down from 9.83 million in December, according to CDU TEK, the Energy Ministry’s central dispatch unit.

“The output level we have today is a plateau, stagnation,” Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said in an interview April 10.

Bloomberg