By Vladimir Soldatkin and Olesya Astakhova
MOSCOW, June 17 (Reuters) – Russia is losing ground to OPEC+ countries due to the lower share of its oil exports in total production, Igor Sechin, head of Russian energy giant Rosneft, said on Saturday.
Sechin, a longtime ally of President Vladimir Putin, has claimed that the crude pumping boom in the United States, which is not a member of OPEC+, is exerting more influence on the oil market than other producers.
In his speech at an economic forum, Sechin stated on Saturday that some OPEC+ countries export up to 90% of their production, while Russia supplies the world market with only half of what it pumps.
“That puts our country in a less advantageous position according to the current impact assessment mechanism and access to key markets,” he said. “In this sense, it seems appropriate to control not only production quotas, but also oil export volumes, given the different sizes of national markets.”
Currently, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, only regulate production, not exports.
Amid falling oil prices, OPEC+ agreed earlier this month to a new pact on output, while Saudi Arabia, the group’s biggest producer, pledged to make a deep cut in output in July, in addition to a broader group agreement to limit supply until 2024.
OPEC+ represents around 40% of world oil production, while Rosneft occupies the same share in Russian production.
Sechin also stated that OPEC countries find it more difficult to find common ground due to differences in economic and production structure.
“In the coming years, humanity will face the problem of production capacities and the OPEC countries will no longer be able to meet the growing demand,” he said. (Reporting by Olesta Astakhova and Vladimir Soldatkin. Editing in Spanish by Javier Leira)
Source: Ambito
