Russia intends to fully meet its OPEC+ quota

Moscow, Russia – Russia intends to fully meet its OPEC+ quota in February despite a decrease in refining, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said.

"We will fulfill our obligations," he told reporters when asked whether Russia will boost export of oil in February to offset a decline in refining.

Russia’s OPEC+ obligations imply reduction of both supplies of oil and petroleum products. Bloomberg reported earlier that Russia cut the production of petroleum products in the middle of February.

Russian oil company Lukoil said in January that the operation of a unit at the Nizhniy Novgorod Refinery had been temporarily suspended due to an incident.

Lukoil is one of the leading refining enterprises with petroleum profile in Russia with an installed oil processing capacity of 17mn tonnes per year.

The international oil demand will grow until 2040 as a minimum, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said during the plenary session at the Russia Expo international forum.

"Many say oil renders moot. I can confidently say this is not so. According to many forecasts of experts, oil consumption will continue growing for a long time. Growth rates will be about 14% until 2040 as a minimum, and this is the incremental demand of about one million barrels per day annually," Novak said.

Overall, the extra demand will be about 700mn metric tonnes of oil during that period, the deputy prime minister said.

Specifically, oil production in East Siberia in 2023 reached 54mn metric tonnes. Offshore oil production amounted to 24mn metric tons, Novak noted.

The International Russia Expo is running from November 4, 2023 to April 12, 2024 in Moscow. Its goal is to demonstrate Russia’s major achievements in various sectors of the economy, with all 89 Russian regions participating.

Russia's Ministry of Energy expects domestic oil production will total 523mn metric tonnes this year, minister Nikolay Shulginov said at a press conference.

"Oil production will provisionally total 523mn metric tonnes and gas production around 667bn cubic meters. Refining will be slightly lower than in the last year," Shulginov said.

Oil and gas condensate production in Russia in 2023 contracted annually by 0.8% to 530.6mn metric tonnes.

According to many forecasts of experts, oil consumption will continue growing for a long time. Growth rates will be about 14% until 2040 as a minimum

ALEXANDER NOVAK