-Russia rates as world leader in oil production
Russia ranks as a leader in global oil production, surpassing Saudi Arabia with its copious and easily accessible oil, and the U.S., whose production gained momentum in recent years thanks to the development of technological innovation for hydrocarbon extraction.
The Russian Ministry of Energy’s statement last week revealed that the U.S. produced 10.44 million barrels of oil per day, while Saudi Arabia produced 10.15 million barrels of oil per day.
"Russia has produced an average of 10 million 973 thousand barrels per day of oil equivalent reaching a total of 46.5 million tonnes of oil in May," the statement read.
Following the meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna on June 23, an agreement was reached to increase oil supplies on the global market by 1 million barrels per day. In line with this agreement, Russia aims to increase its production by 200 thousand barrels per day.
In accordance with OPEC’s new decision to ramp up production, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak reported they would revise up oil production forecasts by 3.5 million tonnes to 551 million tonnes for 2018.
Oil production in the U.S. has fallen since November 1970 when conventional reserves in the country started to run out. As of September 2008, reserves declined to 3.9 million barrels per day.
However, with new technological methods to extract shale oil, production in the country has once again increased. With this output upsurge, restrictions on U.S. oil exports, which lasted nearly 40 years, were lifted in December 2015.
-Russian markets await new U.S. sanctions
The Russian market is closely monitoring the U.S.’ anticipated release of new sanctions against Russian public debts. If these new sanctions are implemented in August, Russia could experience a devaluation of the ruble, followed by Russia’s application of counter-sanctions against the U.S.