Russia is not discussing a possibility of cutting its oil output to support world oil prices, the Energy Ministry reported on Friday, citing Energy Minister Alexander Novak.
“This issue requires careful consideration,” Novak told journalists earlier on Friday in response to a question about possible oil output cuts to stabilize world oil prices.
“There is no such decision to date. Our budget depends very strongly on revenues from the oil industry. We don’t have such technologies as Saudi Arabia to cut or boost output quickly,” Novak said.
“But in general, we’re working inside the government from the viewpoint of the expediency of such methods,” the energy minister said.
All oil exporting countries are concerned over a fall in oil prices lately compared with the level registered in the past three years, he said.
“This requires careful analysis and, possibly, elaboration of some coordinated efforts,” the energy minister said.
“As a whole, we plan output at 505-520 million tons of oil. Now our production volume is higher. If we stay within this figure, we believe these are the target indicators which were set as strategic goals,” the energy minister said.
“It is increasingly difficult to maintain even this level with each passing year because we need to drill more, have more funds to invest, open new deposits, develop hard-to-access oil reserves and launch more complex oilfields with no infrastructure,” the energy minister said.
“As part of our strategy, we are setting the task of preserving the volumes, which we have. Those plans that we earlier announced are still valid. The forecast of the social and economic development with the target of 525 million tons was not revised,” Novak said.