Russia’s top energy official declared on Monday that the country will voluntarily reduce oil exports by 500,000 barrels per day, adding to already planned output restrictions.
“Russia will voluntarily reduce its oil supply by 500,000 barrels per day in August by cutting exports to global markets by that amount as part of efforts to keep the oil market balanced,” Russia’s deputy prime minister in charge of energy policy, Alexander Novak said.
As part of Moscow’s response to Western sanctions over the situation in Ukraine, Novak announced Monday that Russian oil production would be reduced by a similar amount this year.
In an effort to support falling oil prices, Saudi Arabia, a member of the OPEC+ alliance of oil producers with Moscow, declared on Monday that it was extending a voluntary production cut of one million barrels per day.
Moscow has shifted energy exports from Europe to India and China since the start of major conflicts in Ukraine in February of last year.
