Russian oil output resumed steady growth as it rose for a fourth straight month and added 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) in September to reach 9.53 million bpd, a new post Soviet high, Energy Ministry data showed on Monday.
Production grew 0.4 percent from August's 9.49 million bpd, which was the previous post Soviet record.
Output was also 1.2 percent higher than 9.42 million bpd produced in September 2004, when production begun to stagnate after years of explosive growth.
Output averaged 9.38 million bpd between January-September 2005, up a mere 2.7 percent from a year-earlier 9.13 million bpd. Production grew by 9 percent in 2004 and by a record 11 percent in 2003.
Analysts have blamed the collapse of oil major YUKOS and high taxes for the stagnation in production growth, a factor that helped drive global prices higher.
Production growth resumed in June 2005 after eight months of stagnation, prompting some analysts to say the doldrums were over and growth rates should improve from October.
The government said this month it wanted to cut taxes to encourage exploration and development of new fields, sparking more optimism about output prospects.
Top producer LUKOIL, No 2 firm TNK-BP and state firm Rosneft were largely responsible for a boost in output in September, while production of the fallen firm YUKOS was flat month-on-month after a long period of decline.
LUKOIL produced 1.77 million bpd compared with 1.76 million in August, while TNK-BP, half owned by BP, ramped up production to a new high of 1.57 million bpd compared with 1.55 million in August and 1.47 million a year ago.
Rosneft, which snapped up YUKOS's main production unit Yugansk at a forced state auction last year, pushed up production further to 1.53 million bpd compared with 1.51 million in August and 1.49 million in July 2005.
Production at the remaining units of YUKOS, Samara and Tomsk, has likely bottomed in September after months of steep decline as they produced 435,000 bpd compared with 437,000 bpd in August and some 600,000 bpd they were extracting last year.
Russia's No 5 oil firm Sibneft showed the steepest decline after years of explosive growth confirming analysts' views that its shareholders, led by the owner of Chelsea soccer club, Roman Abramovich, have stopped investing in the company ahead of its sale to state monopoly Gazprom.
The firm produced 656,000 bpd, flat month-on-month but down a record 7 percent from 702,000 bpd in September 2004.
Sibneft, which was one of the key driving forced behind Russian output growth in previous years, was last month sold by its owners to Gazprom for $13.1 billion.
On the export front, oil shipments via the trunk pipelines of state monopoly Transneft remained flat in September from August at 4.49 million bpd.
Shipments fell from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk due to stormy weather and steeply declined from Ukraine's Black Sea port of Yuzhny due to lighter scheduled loadings, but rose from Butinge on the Baltic Sea.
Comments
Comments are closed.