Russia slightly increased its crude oil and condensate production in April ahead of the biggest-ever output cuts under the new OPEC+ deal. The country’s producers pumped 46.45 million tons of oil last month, Interfax reported, citing preliminary data for April from the Energy Ministry’s CDU-TEK unit. The figure, which may be rounded, equates to about 11.349 million barrels a day on average, based on the standard 7.33 barrels-per-ton conversion ratio. Russia produced 11.298 million barrels a day in March.
That means, that like Saudi Arabia, Russia took the option of pumping more crude last month after the collapse of the previous pact between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, but the increase in output was much smaller. Saudi Arabia’s move to hike production, to an unprecedented 12 million barrels a day in early April, coincided with nationwide lockdowns amid the coronavirus outbreak and exacerbated a global oil glut.
Last month, OPEC+, spearheaded by de facto leader Saudi Arabia, agreed to joint output cuts across the group of 9.7 million barrels a day in May.
Saudi Aramco has already begun reducing oil production, ahead of the May 1 start, to achieve the agreed level of 8.5 million barrels a day, according to a Saudi industry official familiar with the matter.
Russia’s share of the cuts, which is equal to Saudi Arabia’s, is set to reach 2.5 million barrels a day of crude — condensate is excluded — in May and June. Constraints in output will be divided between all Russian producers, including small oil companies and operators of product-sharing agreements, proportionally to their share in nation’s total output, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview with Interfax news agency earlier this week.