SOVIET OIL PRODUCTION SLIPS TO LESS THAN 12 MILLION B/D

Soviet oil production has fallen to its lowest level in 11 years. Official figures show the U.S.S.R.'s crude and condensate flow averaged only about 11.5 million b/d during May. The last previous month in which Soviet oil production dropped that low was in May 1979. Prospects are that the U.S.S.R. will average less than 11.7 million b/d during first half 1990. That is down from 12.261 million b/d in the first 6 months of last year and 12.514 million b/d in the comparable 1988 period.

June 25, 1990

2 min read

Soviet oil production has fallen to its lowest level in 11 years.

Official figures show the U.S.S.R.'s crude and condensate flow averaged only about 11.5 million b/d during May. The last previous month in which Soviet oil production dropped that low was in May 1979.

Prospects are that the U.S.S.R. will average less than 11.7 million b/d during first half 1990. That is down from 12.261 million b/d in the first 6 months of last year and 12.514 million b/d in the comparable 1988 period.

Soviet hopes for higher oil flow during June were dimmed when workers in the U.S.S.R.'s biggest producing association deliberately reduced production by 10,000 metric tons/day (73,000 b/d) for a 5 day "warning period" early this month (OGJ, June 18, Newsletter). Soviet refineries were immediately struck by reduced crude deliveries from western Siberia.

Meanwhile, the U.S.S.R.'s State Statistical Commission placed much of the blame for falling crude and condensate production on a 16% drop in manufacture of oil field and exploration equipment in Azerbaijan, where ethnic unrest persists.

It noted that Azerbaijan, which still provides more than half of the Soviet Union's oil field equipment, has a monopoly on production of many items required by the country's petroleum industry.

The statistical commission also explained that depletion of old fields is contributing to lower production. But it said delays in developing new fields were an equally serious problem.

Besides difficulties in the oil fields, Soviet transportation of oil and gas by pipeline is being hampered by shortfalls in manufacture of pumps, the statistical commission said.