PRESS: Rosneft CEO thinks OPEC+ deal strategic threat for Russia

MOSCOW, Feb 11 (PRIME) -- The oil output reduction deal of OPEC and non-OPEC states has created preferences for the U.S., a strategic threat for the development of the Russian oil sector, oil major Rosneft’s CEO Igor Sechin said in a letter to President Vladimir Putin in late December, Vedomosti business daily reported on Monday.

Sechin said that the share of Russian oil on the global market contracted to 12% in 2018 from 16.3% in 1990, and consumers switch to other blends, which may result in an irreversible loss of market share for Russian oil companies.

The U.S. oil producers raised their output strongly thanks to lower taxes and stimulation of investment, Sechin said. A source familiar with the letter told Vedomosti that the tax burden on the U.S. oil companies stands at 35% compared with over 80% in Russia.

Sechin also thinks that the U.S. producers will have a chance to ramp up their production and exports fast in late 2019 and early 2020, when pipelines from production centers to the ports in the Gulf of Mexico are launched.

The Energy Ministry, Rosneft, and oil company Gazprom Neft, and Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment.

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