Russia refuses to act together with OPEC to trim its oil production against falling crude prices, Russian First Deputy Energy Minister Alexei Teksler said Friday, according to the country's news agency Tass.
'Russia is not considering an option of acting jointly with OPEC to slash oil production as a mechanism of price correction,' Teksler said.
'We do not consider such an option, just as before,' he added.
Due to falling oil prices, which declined around 60 percent since mid-2014, economies of Russia and OPEC countries have been affected negatively, since a high portion of their revenues are based on oil exports.
Moscow has recently been in talks with OPEC's most influential member Saudi Arabia and the cartel's secretary-general in July to discuss global oil market and the possibility of jointly supporting global oil prices.
However, Teksler emphasized Friday that Russian oil output does not anticipate instant changes in global oil production, and added that his country's energy strategy for 2035 anticipated an oil export growth of at least 40 to 50 million tonnes.
Meanwhile, Russian oil company Lukoil's CEO, Vagit Alekperov, also said that Russia cannot agree with the oil production limits in OPEC.
'We have challenging fields; the majority of them have low production rates…It is impossible to stop wells, because starting will require much more funds than stopping… In certain cases, it will simply be impossible to restart wells,' he explained, according to Tass.
Oil experts and some members of the cartel believe that lowering OPEC's production quota would trim the glut of oil supply in the global market and create an upward pressure on oil prices.
Although OPEC's official collective quota is determined as 30 million barrels a day, the cartel produces more than 32 million barrels of crude oil on average every day.
By Ovunc Kutlu
Anadolu Agency
ovunc.kutlu@aa.com.tr