Novak: Russia may increase crude oil exports

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Russia could increase its crude oil exports. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview that Russia could increase its crude oil exports if the European Union’s fuel import ban on Russia leads to a drop in refinery efficiency. “If there are problems with the sale of petroleum products, then oil refining can be replaced to some extent by additional volumes of oil exports,” Novak said. Novak also said there was still a chance that the EU ban would not affect Russian oil refining at all. The EU ban on petroleum product imports from Russia comes into effect on February 5 and comes on top of a crude import restriction imposed since early December. Novak said on Sunday that Russia will produce at least 490 million to 500 million tonnes of oil next year, reiterating his previous forecast. That is equivalent to about 9.84 million to 10.04 million barrels per day, based on a rate of 7.33 barrels per tonne. Russia could produce 535 million tonnes of oil this year, Novak said in an interview with Rossiya-24 TV channel on Friday.