Russia back to growth, of a kind

Petroleum supplies to the international market should rise in 2018

We expect further production growth from Russia's oil sector in 2018. Despite the oil price, which remains relatively low, technological and financial sanctions against Russia, which were strengthened in 2017, and the deal with Opec to cut production, which curbed Russian supply last year, 2018 will bring more oil. It will be the resumption of the trend. Between 2012 and 2016, Russian oil output rose by 6%, from 10.4m barrels a day to 11m b/d. And according to our estimates, in 2018 the number should increase to around 11.4m b/d. It's not all straightforward, because the producing profile has been changing over recent years. Oil production in older fields, the brownfields, fell by 5% (or 400