09-11-04

Russia will start to reduce oil exports in two years as oil production levels in the country stabilize and fall, said Yury Shafranik, head of the Oil and Gas Industrialists' Union (Soyuzneftegaz).
"Oil production has almost peaked, and further growth is only possible if price trends are good, so exports will be automatically restricted in two years from now," Shafranik, a former energy minister, told.

He said the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast Russia would sustain oil production growth for another two or three years, then production would level off and start to decline.
"Only direct investments can alter that situation," Shafranik said. But the IEA underestimates that fact that Russia has unexplored fields which could fuel production growth for three to four years, he said.

Source: Interfax Information Services