Oil production in Russia has fallen to 2020 pandemic levels – Reuters

Oil production in Russia fell to 8.83 million barrels per day in April, the lowest level since the summer of 2020. 

This was reported by Reuters, citing a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

This sharp decline is due to massive strikes by Ukrainian drones on export terminals, oil storage facilities, and refineries, which caused the Transneft system to become overloaded. Unable to fully ship raw materials through Baltic Sea ports, producers are forced to cut production. Meanwhile, average daily exports of petroleum products plummeted to a historic low of 2.2 million barrels, a result of damage to refineries combined with scheduled maintenance.

The situation resembles the spring-summer of 2020, when Russia artificially limited production under the OPEC+ agreement due to the global lockdown. However, the current reduction is of a forced technical nature, as domestic logistics chains are blocked due to the destruction of key infrastructure nodes. IEA analysts note that compared to April of last year, production has fallen by 460,000 barrels per day.

Global oil reserves could run out within a month.

For the first time in history, the U.S. has begun releasing oil to other countries from its strategic reserves.