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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (7552)	5/2/2008 10:16:57 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 24242

Russian April Oil Output Falls to Lowest in 18 Months (Update1) By Torrey Clark May 2 (Bloomberg) -- Russia, the world's second-largest oil supplier, produced the least amount of crude in 18 months in April as aging fields and rising costs threaten the country with the first annual decline in oil output in a decade. Production dropped to 9.72 million barrels a day (39.8 million metric tons a month), 0.8 percent less than in April last year and only slightly higher than in October 2006, according to data released today by CDU TEK, the dispatch center for the Energy Ministry. Compared with March, output fell 0.4 percent. Russia's output may have peaked as producers struggle with aging fields, rising costs and increasingly remote new deposits, Moscow-based OAO Lukoil and OAO TNK-BP, the country's two- biggest independent oil companies, said in April. The finance and energy ministries are working on tax-cut proposals by July to stimulate investment. Exports through OAO Transneft, the state oil-pipeline operator, increased 6.7 percent from March to 4.5 million barrels a day. Russia increased the crude export tax to a record $340.10 a metric ton ($46.53 a barrel) on April 1 and plans to raise the levy again as of June 1. Exports dropped 3.8 percent compared with April last year. Production from Lukoil, OAO Surgutneftegaz and Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Sakhalin-1 project continued to decline. State-run OAO Rosneft, which boosted output by about a third after buying bankrupt OAO Yukos Oil Co.'s assets last year, produced 2.29 million barrels of oil, 0.3 percent more than in March. The world's largest crude supplier is Saudi Arabia. Sakhalin Decline Lukoil pumped 1.79 million barrels a day last month, 0.6 percent less than in March and 2.7 percent less than in April last year. The company cut its growth target to 1.5 percent this year after delays starting the Yuzhno-Khylchuyusskoye field in the Timan-Pechora region. Sakhalin-1, in which Rosneft owns a stake, pumped 204,900 barrels a day, 2.8 percent less than in March and 8.1 percent less than last year. The project, off Sakhalin Island to the north of Japan, averaged 225,000 barrels of oil a day last year. The Exxon Mobil-led project, where production peaked last year, helped Russia boost output 2.2 percent in 2007. The project may pump 29 percent less oil this year, as the Chaivo field goes into decline and OAO Gazprom holds up sales of the project's natural gas to China, a Rosneft official said in February. Gazprom's Oil TNK-BP, the Russian venture that accounts for a quarter of BP Plc's output, pumped 1.57 million barrels a day last month, 0.3 percent more than in March, although 2.8 percent less than in April last year. OAO Slavneft, which TNK-BP owns equally with state-run OAO Gazprom, continued to decline. TNK-BP's Russian shareholders have denied they're in talks to sell out to Gazprom. Gazprom's oil arm, OAO Gazprom Neft, said earlier this month it will more than double crude output by 2020 to about 100 million tons a year through acquisitions of existing producers and new licenses. The unit pumped 816,000 barrels in April, including Slavneft, 0.7 percent less than in March and 6.5 percent less than a year earlier. Surgutneftegaz, Russia's third-largest independent oil company, produced 1.23 million barrels a day, little changed from March and 5.4 percent less than in 2007. To contact the reporter on this story: Torrey Clark in Moscow at tclark8@bloomberg.net. bloomberg.com