Russia not very worried about proposal to cut oil exports under OPEC+ deal
MOSCOW. Oct 3 (Interfax) - Russia is not very worried about a proposal to cut oil exports along with oil production under the OPEC+ deal, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview for an oil and gas industry journal.
"We are not very worried. It's clear that when cutting oil production either residual oil or oil exports will go down. If plants refine less oil, this means that less oil products will be produced, which means less fuel exports. Demand for oil products in Russia has not changed this year in comparison to the previous year, while exports of oil and oil products in the first half of the year ended up lower than the same period last year," he said.
He said that Saudi Arabia and other participants in the OPEC+ deal did not have pretensions against Russia on the issue of oil exports. "We don't have any issues from participants in the deal with regard to oil exports. The same goes for proposals to change the system of assessing compliance with the agreement," the minister said.
Saudi Arabia had earlier proposed that participants in the OPEC+ agreement cut not only oil production, but oil exports as well.