Russia says limiting oil data access to protect local market

(Reuters) – Russia’s Energy Ministry is limiting access to its statistics on oil and gas production and exports, it said on Thursday.

The ministry “is limiting the distribution of information, which could be used as an additional pressure on the Russian market and its participants,” it said.

The ministry unit which compiles the data, the CDU TEK, did not publish monthly data on April 2, according to two clients, in the first such delay in years.

Russia has faced Western sanctions since the start of what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine on Feb. 24.

“The industry’s statistical data, amid the restrictions, is quite sensitive to manipulation, which endangers operations of CDU TEK’s counterparties,” the ministry said.

Russia’s oil and gas condensate production on Monday fell below 10 million barrels per day (bpd) to its lowest since July 2020, two sources familiar with data said.

Russian oil production could fall by 1.5 million bpd this month as Russian refiners throttle back and buyers shy away, the International Energy Agency has forecast.

(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Jason Neely)