OREANDA-NEWS. In December 2019, Russia exceeded the OPEC+ deal by 2.6%, reducing oil production by 234 thousand barrels per day compared to the level of October 2018 (the deal was tied to the production data for this month, it amounted to 228 thousand barrels per day), reports the Ministry of Energy of Russia.

"According to the results of December 2019, within the framework of OPEC+ Russia, it reached a level of reduction in oil production (without condensate) of 234 thousand barrels per day compared to the level of October 2018", the ministry said.

Russia was able to overfulfill the deal because of the OPEC + decision to exclude the calculation of gas condensate in the quota for the country's reduction volumes. Thus, the production of gas condensate as of December 2019 was 58 thousand barrels per day higher than the level of October 2018.

OPEC + countries (24 oil exporting countries, including Russia) have been coordinating production management since 2017. At a meeting in July, they extended the agreement to reduce oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day to the level of October 2018, of which 812 thousand barrels per day fall to OPEC countries. The agreement is valid until the end of March 2020.