Russia to approve postponement of production increase within OPEC+

Russia will support the postponement of the increase in oil production to May if the OPEC+ group allows it to slightly increase output, Report informs, citing Reuters, which refers to an informed source.

The Russian Ministry of Energy and the staff of Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who is in charge of Moscow's relations with OPEC+, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The April OPEC+ ministerial summit is likely to pass a decision similar to the one approved at the meeting in March - not to increase oil production in April. An exception was made for the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan, which were allowed to increase crude production by 150,000 barrels per day (b/d) and 20,000 b/d, respectively.

Russia would like to make a slight increase in production again ahead of the sowing campaign, the source told Reuters.

Before the previous OPEC+ ministerial summit, Moscow and Riyadh discussed an increase in oil production by 1 million b/d from April 1. However, in response to the high level of uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, an unexpected decision was made for the market to leave the oil production and export unchanged.