MOSCOW – More crude from state-owned top producer Rosneft kept Russian oil output the highest in the world last year, ahead of Saudi Arabia, Energy Ministry data showed Wednesday. Crude output edged up almost 1 percent to a new post-Soviet high of 10.37 million barrels per day (bpd), but the increase could halt this year due to depleted oil fields in West Siberia. Russia, whose proceeds from oil gas constitute around half of budget revenues, aims to keep its crude production at no less than 10 million bpd until 2020. The Kremlin has increased its share in the oil industry to over 50 percent after top oil producer Rosneft clinched an agreement to acquire Anglo-Russian TNK-BP for around $55 billion in a cash-and-stock deal. After the acquisition, expected to be completed in the first half of this year, Rosneft will become the world's largest listed oil producer with hydrocarbon output of some 4.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. In tons, Russia's crude production was 518.018 million last year, the ministry said, up from 511.432 million tons in 2011, which was one day shorter than 2012. In December, Russia's oil production edged down to 10.48 million bpd from 10.50 million in November, a post-Soviet high. Rosneft reported one of the largest rises in crude output among the Russian oil majors last year, with an increase of 2.3 percent to 117.473 million tons (2.4 million bpd) on a daily basis thanks to increased production at its East Siberia's Vankor field to 367,000 bpd. LUKOIL, Russia's second-largest oil producer, saw a 1 percent decline in domestic output, to 84.620 million tons. LUKOIL has tried to increase its exposure to overseas oil deposits as it has been unable to offset a production decline at its mature West Siberian oilfields. It owns 75 percent of Iraq's huge West Qurna-2 deposit. Brent crude averaged over $111 a barrel in 2012, the highest on record. The international benchmark gained 3.5 percent for the year, after rising 13.3 percent in 2011. However Russia has yet to follow the United States in deploying advanced horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies, which is known as fracking, on a commercial scale. Last month, Rosneft has agreed with ExxonMobil to tap the shale oil in West Siberia. The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects non-OPEC supplies to grow by 900,000 bpd to 54.17 million bpd in 2013, taking total consumption up to an average of 90.52 million bpd, while production in Russia will decline. Brownfield, or established, oil production in Russia accounts for over 80 percent of total output. The oil resources at Russia's offshore fields - estimated at 100 billion tons of oil equivalent - are also seen as the next source of domestic oil production. Most are in the Arctic where only state-owned companies, such as Rosneft, have access. Daily gas production jumped 10.4 percent, month-on-month, to 2.12 billion cubic metres (bcm) in December thanks to a rise in seasonal demand. – Reuters
