Premier-eFinance: Russia churned out 10.26 million barrels of oil in July 2011, matching record.

Aug. 23, 2011 - PRLog -- The world’s biggest oil producer in July turned out 10.26 million, matching a post-Soviet record set in October last year.

The country’s biggest oil company Rosneft’s production reached a record 2.4 million b/d in July, with an increase in output at the Vankor field helping boost its growth rate to 1.5% to 2%, Premier-eFinance sources report.

However, country's natural gas output dropped slightly to 48.4 billion cm from 50.67 billion cm in June.

Analysts believe the drop in natural gas production is probably seasonal and are watching to see whether export customers who buy from monopoly gas exporter Gazprom will reduce off take in the second half of the year, when the price they pay under oil-linked long-term contracts is set to increase dramatically.

Analysts also felt that Russia is emerging as a swing supplier for Europe and the Far East because of the emergence of spare export capacity east and west and allowed it to take advantage of OPEC production

By 2015, Russia's oil pipeline network would have 113 million tonnes a year (2.27 million bpd) of spare export capacity, analysts informed Premier-eFinance.

Russia’s oil output  was boosted this year to new post-soviet record after the country brought the East Siberian fields online, allowing it to keep the title of top producer ahead of Saudi Arabia, which is bound by OPEC output quotas.

'The first main reason for the growth is the continuing ramp up in production from greenfield projects in Russia, particularly in East Siberia. The second reason is better than expected performance from mature brownfields in Russia,' said Nick Gellatly, an analyst with Wood Mackenzie consultancy told Premier-eFinance earlier this year. The higher-than-expected production at mature deposits was down to the adoption of better drilling techniques and a general modernization in operations at some fields, he added.

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