Business | Oil & Gas
Russia fails to increase crude output in March
Russia failed to grow its oil output for a third month in a row in March and closed the first quarter with a one per cent production decline year-on-year, confirming gloomy outlook by analysts for the whole of 2008.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:05 April 3, 2008
Moscow: Russia failed to grow its oil output for a third month in a row in March and closed the first quarter with a one per cent production decline year-on-year, confirming gloomy outlook by analysts for the whole of 2008.
Energy Ministry data showed yesterday March oil production edged down to 9.76 million barrels per day from 9.79 million bpd in February, and well below the post Soviet high of 9.93 million bpd reached in October last year.
In absolute figures, March production was over five million barrels - the size of five large tankers - down from October.
Since October, oil production in Russia has been balancing between decline and stagnation, prompting many analysts to revise down their oil production forecasts for 2008.
Credit Suisse said last week it expected oil output to fall by 0.5 per cent this year, down from its earlier growth prediction of 0.7 per cent.
Also last week, UBS said that Russian oil production might drop in excess of one per cent this year if oil companies fail to drill thousands of news wells.
The data showed first quarter output amounted to 9.77 million bpd, down one per cent from 9.86 million bpd in the same year-ago period.
Russian energy and economy ministries expect output to grow by 1.7 per cent this year after an increase of 2.3 per cent in 2007 and much bigger spikes in previous years, including a record 11 per cent in 2003.
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