MOSCOW, June 17 — Igor Sechin, head of the Russian energy giant Rosneft, said today that Russia is losing out to Opec+ countries due to a smaller share of its oil exports in production.
Sechin, a long-standing ally of President Vladimir Putin, has said that the oil output boom in the United States, which is not a member of the Opec+ group, was wielding more influence on the global oil market than other oil producers.
Speaking at an economic forum, Sechin said today that some Opec+ oil-producing countries exports as much as 90 per cent of their output whereas Russia supplies the global market with only half of its production.
“That puts our country in a less advantageous position under the current mechanism for assessing the impact and access to key markets,” he said. “In this regard, it seems appropriate to monitor not only production quotas, but also oil export volumes, given the different sizes of domestic markets.”
Currently, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, a group known as Opec+, regulates only production, not exports.
Amid flagging oil prices, Opec+ agreed on a new oil output deal earlier this month while Saudi Arabia, the group’s biggest producer, pledged to make a deep cut to its output in July on top of a broader Opec+ deal to limit supply into 2024.
Opec+ accounts for around 40 per cent of global oil production, while Rosneft occupies the same share in Russia’s oil output.
Sechin also said that it was more difficult for Opec countries to find common ground due to differences in economic structure and oil production.
“In coming years, humanity will face the problem of production capacities and Opec countries will no longer be able to meet the growing demand,” he said. — Reuters
