Russia increased its natural gas production by 7.2 percent in the first half of 2018 compared to the same period of 2017, according to figures released by Russia's Ministry of Economic Development and Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) late on Monday.
Rosstat said Russia's natural gas production totaled 323 billion cubic meters in the first half of this year. However, the country's oil production decreased by 0.4 percent to 271 million tonnes during the same period. Russia pledged to reduce its daily oil production of 11.24 million barrels by 300,000 barrels, as part of OPEC's oil output agreement in 2016.
OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers agreed in late 2016 to cut their output by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in order to trim the supply glut in the global market. They began implementing the agreement in January 2017 and later extended it until the end of this year. In accordance with the latest OPEC decision, Russian companies will increase their oil production by 200 thousand barrels per day (bpd) as of July 1.
