Oil Energy Thread (oih)

[madrose1]

Exxon field lifts Russian Aug oil output to record
Sat Sep 2, 2006 9:34am ET
http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20060902:MTFH68009_2...

Exxon field lifts Russian Aug oil output to record
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More Company News... Email This Article | Print This Article | Reprints [-] Text [+] By Tom Miles

MOSCOW, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Russian crude oil production edged up 0.9 percent to a new all-time high of 9.759 million barrels per day in August, largely thanks to the Exxon-led (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Sakhalin-1 field coming on stream.

Sakhalin-1 aims to be pumping 250,000 bpd by the end of the year, so the output record could be overtaken again within months if production is ramped up further.

Energy Ministry data released on Saturday did not give an exact figure for the field, but showed that production sharing agreements -- including Sakhalin-1 and the Shell-led (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) Sakhalin-2 project -- pumped 611,000 tonnes (144,000 bpd) of crude in August, almost twice as much as in July.


However, exports through Russia's pipeline system fell after a leak in the link to Lithuania forced a halt in supplies to the state and to its Baltic Sea export terminal, Butinge, which had together accounted for almost 240,000 bpd of exports in the first seven months of this year.

Russia's environmental watchdog has said repairs and tests on the pipe mean the oil will not flow until at least February, meaning state pipeline monopoly Transneft (TRNF_p.RTS: Quote, Profile, Research) will have to suspend that section of the Druzhba pipeline to Europe by six months or more in total.

For a table of Russian oil output and exports, click on [ID:nL02651907]

Although total volumes through Transneft's pipes fell 2.6 percent in August, and Druzhba volumes fell 4.5 percent, Transneft's seaborne exports through ports rose 1.9 percent.

The biggest increases were in Odessa and Yuzhny in Ukraine, where a Moscow-leaning prime minister took office at the start of the month. Continued...