Oil production growth in Russia has dropped 2.5-fold this year compared with 2004, though the country remains the leading oil exporter outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the International Energy Agency said in its report published on Tuesday.
By preliminary estimates, Russia’s oil production stood at 9.8 million barrels a day last month, 70,000 barrels a day more than in August.
Russia’s oil output this year is expected to be 250,000 to 300,000 barrels a day more than in 2004. Growth is expected to remain at the same level in 2006. But IEA experts say oil production will be growing much slower over the next two years compared with last year, when oil output climbed by 740,000 barrels a day.
According to the IEA, global oil production dropped to 83.8 million of barrels a day in September, 845,000 barrels less than in August, largely due to disastrous hurricanes in America.
In OPEC countries, oil production increased 100,000 barrels a day in September, to 29.8 million barrels a day.