MOSCOW, Nov 2: A production ramp-up at Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas brought Russia’s oil output, the world’s largest, to a new post-Soviet record high of 10.59 million barrels per day (bpd) in October, Energy Ministry data showed on Saturday.

This was up 0.6 per cent from 10.53m bpd pumped in September. In tonnes, Russia’s crude production was 44.77m last month. That’s above 10m bpd produced last month by Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter. But, according to the International Energy Agency, the West’s energy watchdog, the US will next year overtake Russia as the world’s top oil producer thanks to hard-to-recover crude production boom.

Russia is aiming to produce at least 10m bpd this decade and has introduced some tax relieves for the “tight oil” output, seen as the next source of oil output growth as deposits in West Siberia, the hinterland of the country’s crude production, are becoming increasingly depleted.

Oil and gas production are a cornerstone of energy-dependent Russian economy and accounts for over a half of state’s budged revenues. Total exports via Russia’s oil pipeline monopoly Transneft edged down 1pc to 4.3m bpd in October from September.

According to the central dispatching unit of the Energy Ministry, CDU TEK, oil production at Surgutneftegas, the country’s third-largest oil producer, rose by 3.5pc last month, to 1.24m bpd.

Crude output at Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of world’s top natural gas producer Gazprom, increased by 4.2pc to more than 660,000 bpd, thanks to better results at its northern and West Siberia production units, including Noyabrskneftegas.—Reuters