(Bloomberg) -- Russia's average daily oil production remained above its OPEC+ target in October, though the compliance gap is the smallest since the Druzhba crude-contamination crisis earlier this year.
The country pumped 47.49 million tons of crude and condensate last month, according to preliminary data from the Energy Ministry's CDU-TEK unit. That equals a daily average of 11.229 million barrels, based on the standard 7.33 barrels-per-ton conversion ratio, Bloomberg calculations show. That means Russia produced an average 39,000 barrels a day more than its OPEC+ cap.
Under the agreement between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, Russia -- one of the architects of the deal -- committed to cut its daily output by 228,000 barrels from a baseline level of 11.418 million barrels.
Russia's average daily October production was 211,000 barrels lower than the baseline, according to Energy Minister Alexander Novak. This indicates a compliance gap of just 17,000 barrels a day. In late October, average daily reductions reached 298,000 barrels, more than is required by the deal, Novak said in a statement.
The difference between Bloomberg calculations and figures from the Energy Ministry may be explained by a variation in methodology, as the Ministry uses an individual conversion ratio from tons to barrels for each field, whereas Bloomberg uses a unified ratio.
Russia has failed to meet its OPEC+ obligations for seven months this year -- with May, June and July the exceptions, when the country over-complied and cut production more deeply after contaminated crude was discovered in the Druzhba pipeline, forcing parts of the link to shut down.
To contact the reporters on this story: Dina Khrennikova in Moscow at dkhrennikova@bloomberg.net;Olga Tanas in Moscow at otanas@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, Lars Paulsson, Natasha Doff
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