Russian April Oil Output Falls to Lowest in 18 Months

(Bloomberg) — Russia, the world’s second-largest oil supplier, produced the least amount of crude in 18 months in April as aging fields and rising costs threaten the country with the first annual decline in oil output in a decade.

Production dropped to 9.72 million barrels a day (39.8 million metric tons a month), 0.8 percent less than in April last year and only slightly higher than in October 2006, according to data released today by CDU TEK, the dispatch center for the Energy Ministry. Compared with March, output fell 0.4 percent.


Russia’s output may have peaked as producers struggle with aging fields, rising costs and increasingly remote new deposits, Moscow-based OAO Lukoil and OAO TNK-BP, the country’s two- biggest independent oil companies, said in April. The finance and energy ministries are working on tax-cut proposals by July to stimulate investment.

Exports through OAO Transneft, the state oil-pipeline operator, increased 6.7 percent from March to 4.5 million barrels a day. Russia increased the crude export tax to a record $340.10 a metric ton ($46.53 a barrel) on April 1 and plans to raise the levy again as of June 1. Exports dropped 3.8 percent compared with April last year.

Bloomberg