Russia Exports Less than Half Its Oil
Rosstat published data Friday on the petroleum market in Russia January through September. The data show that Russia that the reduction in exports to the European Union, Russia’s main export market, was much more significant than expected. Export in September was down 4.2 percent in comparison with September 2007, and the reduction for the first nine months of the year was 5.2 percent, compared to the same period of last year. In September, the share of export in oil production fell to 47.9 percent. For the first nine months of the year, it was 49.9 percent.
It is unknown how long Russia will continue to export less than half its oil, as it has since the summer of this year. Until the crisis in autumn, demand for oil in Russia was running opposite to the dynamics of its production, which fell 3 percent in September compared to August and 0.4 percent compared to September 2007. Now, however, the profitability of the domestic market is falling due to lower prices for petroleum products. In Ukraine, where the crisis has hit industry much harder than in Russia, the crisis in oil refining exceeds that even of metallurgy.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 17, 2008
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Photo: Dmitry Lebedev
