23/11/2001

Russia announce minimal oil production cut

Russia have announced they will cut their oil exports by 50,000 barrels a day, a figure short of the amount requested by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Officials in Moscow appeared to leave the way open for further cuts in the first quarter, saying additional measures would be discussed at a meeting between oil companies and the government in the first 10 days of December. Nonetheless, the small increase in the Russian offer, which previously stood at 30,000 barrels a day, will not please OPEC.

OPEC have said they will cut 1.5m barrels a day of production from January to shore up the oil price, but only if non-OPEC countries agree to slice 500,000 barrels a day off their output.

Non-OPEC producers Norway and Mexico have agreed to cut 100,000 to 200,000 barrels a day and at least 100,000 barrels a day of production, respectively, conditional on Russia following with a similar scale of cuts.

Russia earlier this month agreed to a symbolic 30,000 barrels a day cut but increased this to 50,000 barrels a day following a meeting between Viktor Khristenko, deputy prime minister, and the heads of large Russian oil companies. (GB)

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