Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday that Russia's pledges to the OPEC+ group to cut its oil exports included a reduction in oil products, news agencies reported, stoking confusion over Russia's plans to reduce oil supplies.
In the original announcement of the plans to cut oil exports by 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the average level seen in May and June by year-end, Novak had not mentioned oil products but had spoken only about oil.
"When we talk about the oil market and production, oil is produced and then supplied for processing. Therefore, of course, everything is considered together. The final product, of course, takes into account the volumes that are produced," Novak said in response to a question on whether oil products were included in the export reductions, according to Interfax news agency.
It would be easier for Moscow to cut overall exports of crude oil and fuel after Russia announced on Sept. 21 a ban on fuel exports to tackle domestic shortages and high prices. It lifted the ban for most oil products last week.
At the same time, traders' data and Reuters calculations point to Russia's seaborne crude exports from its western ports rising in October from the previous month.
The Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday that preliminary estimates showed Russian crude oil exports last month stood at 4.9 million bpd, which is down by around 100,000 bpd from the May-June average, not by 300,000 bpd as promised by Moscow.
It also said that Russia's total exports of crude oil and products in September rose by 460,000 bpd to 7.6 million bpd, with crude accounting for 250,000 bpd of the increase.
The jump in exports highlights the difficulty the West has faced in trying to reduce Russian exports and revenue to Moscow amid the political fallout over Ukraine.
Russia and the OPEC often clash with the IEA over oil market assessments.
Saudi Arabia and Russia have agreed to continue with voluntary oil supply cuts of a combined 1.3 million barrels of oil per day, or more than 1% of global demand, until the end of the year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that OPEC+ coordination would continue in order to ensure predictability on the oil market and he signalled strongly that a deal to constrain the supply to global markets was here to stay.
