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Russia said today that there was no friction with OPEC+ due to Moscow exceeding crude production quotas and that the world’s second largest oil exporter would compensate for its overpumping, Reuters reports.
Russia yesterday unexpectedly announced that its crude oil production in June exceeded quotas set by the OPEC+ group but said that it would resolve the issue and stick to agreed output levels this month.
The news triggered speculation among some oil traders about tension between Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest exporter which leads the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, and Russia.
Together OPEC and others including Russia, in a group known as OPEC+, have made a series of deep output cuts since late 2022.
Asked by reporters in Moscow if Arab members of the OPEC+ club were unhappy with Russia’s overproduction, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said: “We have no friction.”
“What we are under-fulfilling is very meagre,” he added. “These are errors that will actually be eliminated, secured and obligations will be fulfilled.”
An industry source told Reuters that Novak held a call last week with Saudi officials, who expressed concern about Russia’s overproduction.
“I spoke with the minister [of Saudi Arabia] last week,” Novak said. He gave no further details.
Riyadh needs higher oil prices to balance its books.
Saudi Arabia’s economic growth will likely be one of the slowest among the Gulf Cooperation Council countries this year, according to a Reuters poll of economists, who lowered growth forecasts from three months ago due to extended oil output cuts.
Russia’s production figures are classified so it is unclear just how much Russia pumped in June – and why it needed to make a public statement about it if the overproduction was “meagre”.
