Russian Oil Exporters: Moscow Cannot Place Sharp Limitations On Oil Exports

Yevgeny Samoilov, executive director of the Union of Oil Exporters of Russia, which unites Russian companies delivering oil to the foreign market, announced on Wednesday that Russia could not place the sharp limitations on export growth that OPEC would like to see. Samoilov said that the Russian oil only accounted for 30% of the country's exports. Domestic oil consumption would have to be increased for limitations to be introduced. However, for this, he said that there would have to be investment. The union has highly appraised Russian proposals to attract investment from OPEC into the energy sector of the Russian economy as an instrument to restrain Russian oil exports. Russian Energy Minister Igor Yusufov put forward this idea at the recent OPEC session in Vienna.