Russian oil exports to grow by 220,000 bpd in 2005

Russia will increase its average daily oil exports by 220,000 barrels in 2005 compared to 2004, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told journalists following the first day of a meeting between the Group of Twenty finance ministers in China's Xianghe on October 15. Russia is pursuing a number of projects to increase oil production, the minister said. "This includes the beginning of the development of the Sakhalin-1 project, 80 percent of the operators of which are foreign," he said. Thanks to this project alone, Russia's daily oil production will increase by 240,000 barrels by the end of 2006, Kudrin said. At the present time, this project accounts for an increase in daily oil production by 45,000 barrels, he said. In addition, investments in oil production in Russia grew by about 34 percent in the first seven months of 2005, Kudrin said. "This is a very significant growth in investments," he said. In 2006, Russia will more than double state investments in geological prospecting, he said. According to the finance ministry information, Russia expects to produce about 474 million tonnes of oil in 2005, or 9.5 million barrels a day, which is 3.3 percent more than in 2004.