RusEnergy

Sept. 2006 - [Neftegaz.ru] - Recent reports suggest Russia has overtaken Saudi Arabia as the world's largest oil producer. Statistics recently published by the OPEC show that Russia is currently extracting slightly more oil than Saudi Arabia, making it the biggest oil producer in the world, according to a recent story in the Financial Times. Both countries produce slightly more than 9 million barrels of oil per day. According to OPEC data, in June 2006 Russia extracted 9.236 million barrels a day, about 46,000 more than Saudi Arabia. The United States is the world's largest consumer of oil, accounting for about 20 million barrels per day of the world's 86-million-barrel output. At a time when oil supplies are tight and price fluctuations regularly squeeze consumers, Russia's emergence has implications for the oil market.