Russia Oil Production Declined in March, Interfax Report Signals

(Bloomberg) -- Russia’s oil production in March dropped for the first time in seven months, while remaining above the key threshold of 11 million barrels a day, a report from Interfax suggests.

The nation pumped 46.57 million tons of crude oil and condensate in March, the independent Russian news agency reported, citing an unidentified source familiar with industry data. That’s equivalent to 11.01 million barrels per day, a drop of 0.6% on February, Bloomberg calculations show. 

Russia’s output last showed a monthly decline in August, following a fire at a Gazprom PJSC processing plant in West Siberia, according to historical data from the CDU-TEK unit of Russia’s Energy Ministry.

Russia, which accounts for about 10% of global production, is under pressure from sanctions imposed by western nations and their allies in retaliation to invasion of Ukraine. As of late March, all three key indicators of the nation’s oil industry -- output, exports and deliveries to refineries -- saw declines compared to the start of the month, according to Bloomberg calculations based on earlier CDU-TEK data. 

Only a few countries, including the U.S. and the U.K., have explicitly banned purchases of Russian oil and petroleum products. Still, some other traditional buyers are shunning the fuel, causing the nation’s exports to plummet last month. Domestic demand for fuel has also dropped amid uncertainties over Russia’s economic growth. That double blow has forced the country’s refineries to reduce their processing volumes amid overstocking.

CDU-TEK has delayed publication of oil-output data for March, citing technical difficulties, according to an emailed message from the unit. It didn’t provide information on when the data, originally scheduled for April 2, may be published. 

Russia’s output from March 16-27 dipped below 11 million barrels a day, a level not seen since the start of the year and 1.2% lower than the first half of the month, according to Bloomberg calculations based on earlier industry data.

(Updates with Interfax report on March figures in first three paragraphs.)

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