Russia overtakes Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer

Russia’s oil production reached 10.01m barrels a day in September, a record, and breaching the 10m b/d mark for the first time. OPEC output cuts mean Russia has temporarily overtaken Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer.

Russia, the world’s biggest energy supplier, increased oil output 1.7 percent to a post-Soviet high in September from a year earlier after OAO Rosneft, Russia’s largest crude producer, brought a new field on line in August. Russian oil production rose to 10.01 million barrels a day from 9.84 million barrels a day last year, the Energy Ministry’s CDU-TEK unit said in an e-mailed statement on Friday. Russia produced 9.97 million barrels a day in August.

Russian crude oil reached the record on the back of month on month growth rates delivered mainly by Rosneft and TNK-BP, Citigroup Inc. wrote in a research note. Total crude exports climbed to 5.47 million barrels a day, an increase of 4 percent from the same month last year, and 0.6 percent from the previous month.

Output at Rosneft increased 4.8 percent against the same month last year to 2.4 million barrels a day with the addition of the Vankor field, which may become one of the world’s 10 largest fields, based on a list of major deposits compiled by Cambridge Energy Research Associates. The state controlled company plans to pump 220,000 barrels a day at the northern Siberian field by the end of this year and will more than double output to 510,000 barrels a day at peak production.

TNK-BP output rose 3.5 percent higher than the same month the previous year to 1.44 million barrels a day.

Tags:  OPEC, Russia, Saudi Arabia