Due to lower demand and the OPEC+ deal, Russia’s crude oil exports declined by 10.4 percent in volume year over year in January to October, data from the Russian federal customs, cited by local cargo analytics outlet SeaNews, showed.
The value of Russia’s crude oil exports plunged by more than 40 percent in the same period due to the lower oil prices compared to the average price of oil in the first ten months of 2019. The value of Russian crude oil exports plummeted by 40.6 percent between January and October 2020, and stood at US$60.326 billion, according to data from the Russian federal customs service.
In October 2020 alone, the amount of Russian crude oil exports fell by 25.3 percent compared to October 2019, and dropped 0.9 percent compared to September 2020. The value of Russian crude exports plunged by 51.9 percent annually in October, in which the exports were worth US$5.13 billion.
For most of January through October 2020, Russia was part of the OPEC+ agreement to curtail supply, except in March and early April, when Russia and Saudi Arabia disagreed on how to manage oil supply to the market when demand was crashing due to the pandemic. The current production cuts began in May 2020 and are much deeper than in the previous deal.
After nearly a week of debates early this month, the OPEC+ group decided it would ease the current cuts by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) from January, so the OPEC+ production cuts would stand at 7.2 million bpd, instead of 7.7 million bpd. Ministers of the OPEC+ pact will be meeting monthly to assess the situation on the market and decide on production policy for the following month. The next ministerial meeting is slated for January 4.
Despite renewed fears about oil demand due to the new coronavirus strain, the leader of the non-OPEC group in the OPEC+ pact, Russia, is reportedly still in favor of another 500,000 bpd increase in the alliance’s oil production from February.
