Russia’s Oil Output Still Exceeds OPEC+ Cap Even as Gap Narrows

Russia’s average daily oil production remained above its OPEC+ target in October, though the compliance gap is the narrowest since the Druzhba crude-contamination crisis earlier this year.

The country pumped 47.49 million tons of crude and condensate last month, according to preliminary data from the Energy Ministry’s CDU-TEK unit. That equals a daily average of 11.229 million barrels, based on the standard 7.33 barrels-per-ton conversion ratio, Bloomberg calculations show. That means Russia produced an average 39,000 barrels a day more than its OPEC+ cap.

In mid-October, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that his country would comply with the OPEC+ deal in October after failing to reach the pledged target the previous month.

Under the agreement between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, Russia -- one of the architects of the deal -- committed to cut its daily output by 228,000 barrels from a baseline level of 11.418 million barrels.

Russia has failed to meet its OPEC+ obligations for seven months this year -- with May, June and July the exceptions, when the country over-complied and cut production more deeply after contaminated crude was discovered in the Druzhba pipeline, forcing parts of the link to shut down.