Energy Ministry reports Russia's oil exports in 2002

According to preliminary estimations, Russia's oil exports will reach 145mtons in 2002, First Deputy Energy Minister Igor Matlashov declared at asession of the Ministry's board today. According to him, Russia willproduce approximately 360-362m tons of oil in 2002. 214.4m were producedover the first seven months of 2002, which is 8.3 percent more compared to2001.It is worth mentioning that Russia produced over 182m tons of oil and gasover the first six months of 2002, which exceeded the task by 3.6m tons andthe 2001 oil production volume - by 14.2m. In the first half of 2002,Russia's oil exports exceeded 67m tons. .