From January to June, 14370 km of production wells were drilled in Russia, which is 2.5% less than in the same period a year ago. The slowdown follows Moscow‘s voluntary commitments under the OPEC+ deal, Bloomberg writes, citing industry data.
Bloomberg points out that in June, Russia produced 9.139 million b/d of oil with an obligation to produce only 8.978 million b/d. However, Moscow plans to carry out additional oil production cuts in October and November of this year, and then from March to September 2025 — in total, Russia‘s compensatory “under-production” during the period will amount to almost 15 million barrels of oil.
At the same time, the total volume of production drilling, including high-tech drilling, in Russia increased by an average of 7.5% in 2022-2023. The share of horizontal drilling exceeded 64% of the total drilling volume in the first half of 2024, compared with 54% in 2021.
An increase in drilling volumes and a higher concentration of prospective drilling indicate that, despite the operational difficulties associated with sanctions, Russia has maintained its crude oil production capacity at 10.5 million barrels per day, according to an oil and gas analyst at Moscow–based BCS Global Markets.
It is expected that the total volume of production drilling in Russia will decrease slightly to 29.4 thousand km this year, but it will still exceed the average achieved between 2019 and 2022. According to Kasatkin Consulting estimates, next year it will again exceed 30 thousand km.
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