Sechin Looks to Raise Oil Output

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his new energy policy director, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, went on the offensive Wednesday to battle claims that the country’s oil production was in decline.

“You think oil production is declining?” Sechin said in an interview with Interfax, a first for the secretive former Kremlin insider who has been thrust into the spotlight with his Cabinet appointment this week.

“Let’s wait until the end of the year. I’m sure there won’t be a decline, but an increase instead,” he said, declining to provide reasoning for the claim.

MoscowTimes