Russia becomes world's top producer
By Nigar Abbasova
Russia has gained the position of the world’s biggest oil producer leaving Saudi Arabia behind.
Russia overtook the OPEC de-facto leader in December, when both countries started restricting supplies in line with the cuts agreed between the cartel and other global producers to oust the problem of oil glut.
The country pumped 10.49 million barrels a day in December, down 29,000 barrels a day from November, while Saudi Arabia’s output declined to 10.46 million barrels a day from 10.72 million barrels a day in November, according to the Joint Organisations Data Initiative.
The United States became the third-largest producer, with the volume of 8.8 million barrels a day in December as compared to some 8.9 million barrels a day in November.
Iraq ranked the fourth with the volume of 4.5 million barrels a day, followed by China.
The OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report, released on February 13, showed that the cartel largely complied with the production cut agreement and fulfilled its pledges reaching a record-setting compliance, while the Saudis made the biggest contribution reducing its output by some 496,200 bpd.
OPEC in tandem with other producers, including Russia, agreed last year to cut output almost 1.8 bpd during the first half of 2017. The compliance of the deal participants to production quotas is estimated at around 90 percent.
Russia is preparing to cut output by 300,000 bpd during the first half of 2017 as a part of a global pact. Energy Ministry of the country earlier said that its planned output reduction would be gradual as production cannot be cut abruptly due to weather and technological conditions.
For 2017, the Russian energy ministry forecasts oil production at the level of 548-551 million tons, or 11.01-11.07 million bpd.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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