Economy Ministry cuts oil exports forecasts
Russia's Economy Ministry has downgraded its oil exports forecast for 2008 to 249m tonnes from the previous reading of 251m-256m tonnes, Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Klepach told journalists according to RBC. Simultaneously, the ministry raised its natural gas exports forecast from 202.8bn cubic meters to 205bn cubic meters.
In 2009, Russia is predicted to export 253m-255m tonnes of oil and 208bn-213.5bn cubic meters of gas. The respective figures are 256m-261m tonnes of oil and 216.7bn-222.7bn cubic meters of gas for 2010, and 256m-262m tonnes of oil and 224bn-227bn cubic meters of gas for 2011. In addition, Russia will see a rise in oil product exports, to 115.1m tonnes (up from the previous forecast of 114m tonnes) in 2008. The exports forecast for oil products remained unchanged at 111.7m-115.4m tonnes for 2009, 109.4m-117.6m tonnes for 2010 and 107m-117.8m tonnes for 2011.