R ussia’s average daily oil output in May fell below its OPEC+ target for the first time this year after buyers refused to take exports via Druzhba, the nation’s key pipeline to Europe, because of contamination.
The country produced just more than 47 million tons of crude oil and condensate in May, according to preliminary data from the energy ministry’s central dispatching department of fuel energy complex (CDU TEK) unit.
That implies a daily average of about 11.114 million barrels, which is 76,000 barrels a day below the cap for the nation set under the OPEC+ deal, Bloomberg calculations show.
May was the first full month of compliance by Russia this year, just weeks before the country meets with members of OPEC to determine whether the cuts should be extended. Russia pledged to reduce its oil production under the deal by 228,000 barrels a day from the October baseline of about 11.418 million barrels a day.
For more than a month, Russia has suffered interruptions to its exports through Druzhba after the crude in the giant pipeline was found to be tainted with organic chlorides. Pipeline operator Transneft PJSC said in early May that producers were maintaining supplies to the Russian network, and Lukoil PJSC insisted the crisis hadn’t crimped its output. Analysts have been skeptical.
“All companies are saying the effect has been insignificant, but it was still there,” Ildar Davletshin, a London-based energy analyst at Wood & Co., said by phone before the CDU-TEK data was published.