Russia aims to up production as OPEC offer minimal increase

In Russia on Thursday one of Vladimir Putin’s top aides, Igor Shuvalov, said that Russia will rise above a slowdown in the growth of its oil output. No time targets were given, but Mr. Shuvalov expressed confidence that output could be increased to 10 million barrels per day, an advance of 7.5 percent over current production.

Elsewhere, the price of crude oil futures was up Thursday as OPEC announced that it will only consider raising crude oil production quotas by 500,000 barrels per day if prices reach $60 per barrel. OPEC also increased what it called the “ideal” price for West Texas Intermediate crude to $53 per barrel. Previously, many OPEC ministers had set $40 to $50 per barrels as the ideal price range for both consumers and producers.

WTI August delivery contracts rose by 24 cents to $57.50 per barrel in early afternoon trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Meanwhile at late afternoon in London, Brent crude on the International Petroleum Exchange had gained 32 cents to $56.47 per barrel.

July Nymex heating oil gained 4 cents to $1.6450 per gallon, while IPE July gasoil was up $13.50 to $526 per tonne. These rises in distillate prices helped drive the gain in crude oil prices.

Declines in price earlier in the week were attributed to profit-taking by oil traders.