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Russia sees 2009 oil output up 1 pct, gas falling

MOSCOW - Russia will produce 1 percent more crude oil this year than in 2008 but natural gas production and exports will decline as a result of lower demand, the country’s foremost energy official said on Monday.

Russian oil production in 2009 is expected to reach 493 million tonnes, reversing last year’s first decline in a decade, as new fields in East Siberia have come on stream, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said at a presidential meeting.

Crude oil exports would rise 1.8 percent to 247.4 million tonnes in the same comparison, he said.

Refined oil output is expected to reach 235 million tonnes, Sechin said, without giving a comparison. Oil product exports are seen rising 4.1 percent year-on-year to 123 million tonnes.

A reduction in demand as a result of the global financial crisis would result in 2009 natural gas production falling to 575 billion cubic metres (bcm), Sechin said.

Gas exports were likely to drop 10 percent to 170.6 bcm and domestic consumption would fall 7 percent to 426.5 bcm, he said.

Russian coal production, at 296 million tonnes this year, would be 10 percent below 2008, although exports would rise 2 percent to 100 million tonnes, Sechin said.