Russia missed its oil output reduction target for November as specified in the OPEC+ deal of 2018, Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak announced on Tuesday.
The world's second largest oil producer only met approximately 85% of its oil reduction target, Novak announced in the Russian capital, according to Russian news agency TASS.
Saudi Arabia-led OPEC and Russia-led non-OPEC agreed in December 2018 to lower their collective oil production level by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd). The OPEC+ agreement was later extended until the end of March next year.
Moscow agreed to lower its oil production by 228,000 bpd out of the total 400,000 bpd output cut of non-OPEC production. While OPEC promised to reduce its output by 800,000 bpd, Saudi Arabia undertook most of the burden by curbing its output by 500,000 bpd.
Last month, Novak explained that Russia needs plenty of natural gas to consume and export over the winter season. And to cover demand, he said the production of gas condensate also increases, which leads to higher output levels from oil wells.
'We strive to meet the deal in full at the level of 200,000-228,000 [bpd]. We have a good level of performance over the winter period and the statistics also take into account the condensate,' he said.
As the much-anticipated OPEC+ meeting looms this week, the question as to whether Moscow will further cut its production level intensifies given that Russia has also missed its output reduction target for September.
When asked about OPEC+ making deeper production cuts, Novak was non-committal in his response and said that he would wait until the OPEC meeting to discuss this possibility.
By Talha Yavuz and Ovunc Kutlu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr