Crude production up, Russia says

Crude oil production from Russia is expected to boast modest gains in 2009 despite earlier forecasts of a decline in the industry, officials said.

The output of crude oil from Russia for 2008 and the first two months of 2009 fell about 1 percent, but March output saw a modest increase of 0.4 percent to 9.76 million barrels per day.

The Russian Energy Ministry said it expects that trend to continue for the rest of the year, with an increase of as much as 2 percent, the Platts news service reports.
UPI