Russia might increase crude exports instead to replace petroleum products

According to a statement made by Russia’s vice prime minister Alexander Novak, the country may increase the volumes of crude oil exports in case there’s a decline in refinery throughput because of the European Union’s banning fuel imports.

As said by Novak, if selling petroleum products gets complicated, there’s a possibility to mitigate the problem to a certain degree by larger crude oil exports. At the same time, according to Novak, it’s still probable that the EU ban would have no actual impact on Russian oil refining.

It’s worth noting that the European Union ban on oil-product imports from Russia starts from February 5. The ban complements the restriction of crude oil imports imposed this month.

On Sunday, Novak also spoke on volumes of Russian oil production next year. According to his estimations, the country will produce from 490 million to 500 million tons of oil in 2023. It repeats his earlier forecasts. On a daily basis, his estimation suggests production of 9.84 million to 10.04 million barrels per day.

For the current year, oil production is expected to amount to 535 million tons of oil, as said by Novak.