Russia not planning to cut oil production in response to low price, but studying scenarios
MOSCOW. Nov 18 (Interfax) - Russia is not planning to reduce hydrocarbon production in response to lower oil prices, but is examining several scenarios for how events may develop, the head of the Energy Ministry's oil and gas production and transportation department Alexander Gladkov told journalists.
"So far we have not received signals from the companies about sharply lowering production if oil is under $90," he said.
This year, despite the steep decline in oil prices, the average price exceeds $100 per barrel, he said.
"We will move within the framework of those plans, those strategies that we have planned," Gladkov said, noting that the production target for each of the next three years is 525 million-526 million tonnes of oil. "We do not plan to retreat from that," he said.
The government is currently examining several scenarios for oil production volumes in 2015, including a stress scenario, he said.
Commenting on the potential for cutting production volumes in order to support prices, Gladkov said production cuts are possible only in a consortium with other countries. "If we alone lower production, obviously it would have to be a big cut and we would lose the budget planned for 2015. If not alone - I have not heard that we had entered into a consortium with anyone, presented a united front, in order to reduce production," he said.
