Russia will increase oil production by less than 1 percent this year, to 508-509 million tonnes, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Friday at an industry meeting on export duty for oil and product exports. Russia produced around 505 million tonnes last year. "Last year Russia became the world's top oil producer," Putin said. "This is exactly the level of crude which allows us to cover our own needs as well as export requirements. This year we expect 508-509 million tonnes."
Putin announced a long planned cut in the coefficient used to calculate oil export duty to 60 percent "initially", down 5 points from the current level, to stimulate crude output. But he suggested oil companies could lose access to export pipelines if they neglected domestic refining.
Russia, the world's largest crude exporter, has faced acute gasoline shortages in recent months as refineries have proven unequipped to refine enough light oil products - gasoline and diesel - to supply the country's growing number of cars. "Producers should have the responsibility to supply the domestic market (with oil products) in a proportional amount to the crude they pump," Putin told a conference of industry regulators and company officials.
He said export duty on fuel oil exports would be equal to the duty charged on crude by 2015, but Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko later said the proposal was to equalise duty on exports of all oil products at 66 percent of the level charged on crude.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.