MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia’s Energy Ministry said that the country’s oil output in July was unchanged from levels seen in June, in line with an OPEC+ agreement, said Reuters.
The ministry added that its level of compliance with the deal in July was close that recorded in June, when it stood at 99%. Energy ministry data published earlier on Sunday by Interfax news agency showed that Russia’s oil and gas condensate production had increased to 9.37 million barrels per day (bpd) in July, up from 9.32 million bpd in June. Oil output cuts, agreed between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other major producers including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, are due to be eased in August. Under the OPEC+ agreement, Moscow pledged to reduce its output to around 8.5 million bpd in May-July to support oil prices.
The deal does not include output of gas condensate, a light oil. The cuts under the global deal should be eased starting from August because of a recovery in oil prices. Russia has said it would increase its oil production by 400,000 bpd.
The ministry data showed that Russian oil and gas condensate production rose to 39.63 million tonnes in July from 38.16 million tonnes in June, the Interfax news agency reported. Russia usually produces 700,000 to 800,000 bpd of gas condensate. That means that excluding gas condensate, Russia could have produced around 8.57 million to 8.67 million bpd of crude oil in July.
Russian oil exports outside the former Soviet Union stood last month at 15.72 million tonnes, down 27.1% from July 2019. In barrels per day, exports reached 3.72 million, according to Interfax. The news agency also said on Sunday that Russian natural gas output reached 50.33 billion cubic metres in July, down 7.9% from a year earlier.
As MRC informed previously, data collected and tabulated by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) show that due to growth in China, global chemicals production rose by 0.6 percent in June, an improvement from the 0.5 percent decline in May, Production has been declining throughout this year, with the last monthly gain occurring in December 2019. During June, chemical production fell in major regions except Asia-Pacific. Headline global production was off 7.2 percent year-over-year (Y/Y) on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis and was off 7.4 percent from the peak December level. Global output stood at 109.8 percent of its average 2012 levels.
At the same time, Russia's output of chemical products rose in June 2020 by 2.6% year on year. However, production of basic chemicals increased year on year by 4.9% in the first six months of 2020. According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, polymers in primary form accounted for the greatest increase in the output in January-June. Production of benzene was 106,000 tonnes in June 2020, compared to 110,000 tonnes a month earlier. Overall output of this product reached 721,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 3.9% year on year. June production of polymers in primary form fell to 791,000 tonnes from 820,000 tonnes in May partially because of a scheduled shutdown for maintenance at ZapSibNeftekhim. Output of polymers in primary form totalled 4,900,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 14.8% year on year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia dropped in January-June 2020 by 7% year on year to 328,000 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the main decrease in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia rose in the first six months of 2020 by 21% year on year to 105,300 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
MRC