Russia pumped 2.8% lower volumes of crude oil and condensate in 2024 from a year earlier, while its natural gas production rose by 7.6%, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak wrote on Thursday in the energy ministry’s in-house magazine.

Last year, Russian oil production stood at 516 million tons, said Novak, who is Russia’s top oil official and represents the country at the OPEC+ talks and meetings.

The production volumes were equivalent to about 10.32 million barrels per day (bpd). This was down by 2.8% from 2023, as Russia has been reducing supply as part of the OPEC+ deal to tackle the oversupply on the market.

Russia, alongside fellow non-OPEC producer Kazakhstan and OPEC’s second-largest producer, Iraq, still have work to do to compensate for the lack of compliance with the OPEC+ quotas from previous years and months.

Russia has submitted a compensation plan to OPEC envisaging Moscow mostly compensating for its overproduction in the months of March to September due to the more challenging conditions in the winter.

Commenting on Russia’s oil production and the OPEC+ deal, Novak wrote in the article that the OPEC+ agreement has a positive effect on the Russian federal budget revenues.

In the natural gas segment, Russia’s production rose by 7.6% on the year to 685 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2024. Pipeline gas exports increased by 15.6% and LNG exports rose by 4% last year compared to 2023, Novak said.

The higher pipeline gas exports were the result of the increased Russian gas deliveries to China, where Gazprom’s flows via the Power of Siberia pipeline reached full capacity at the end of last year.

Moscow classified oil and gas production and export data after the invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions and embargoes that the West imposed on Russian oil in an effort to reduce Putin’s revenues.

In light of the latest U.S. sanctions on its oil exports, Russia is said to have been reshuffling tankers to prioritize shipments to China, which has become Moscow’s top crude oil buyer alongside India.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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