Russia has announced that it will deepen its oil export cuts, potentially by 50,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) or more.

This decision comes earlier than promised, as the world’s biggest exporters try to support the global oil price.

Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world’s two biggest oil exporters, called in December for all OPEC+ members to join an agreement on output cuts after a fractious meeting of the producers’ club. 

Shortly after the OPEC+ meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Riyadh and discussed the need for deeper cuts with Saudi officials.

According to Reuters, Russia had pledged a cut of 300,000 bbl/d compared to the May-June exports and to keep it at that level until the end of the year. Meanwhile, in December, Russia agreed to deepen those cuts to 500,000 bb/d in the first quarter of 2024.

“Already in December, we will add additional volumes. By how much, we’ll see based on the results of December—there may be an additional 50,000 bbl/d, maybe more,” said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, Putin’s top oil and gas point man.

Novak also mentioned that due to promises made to OPEC+, Russia’s oil exports in 2023 will total less than the 247 million tons used in Russia’s main macro-economic forecasts.

Besides the oil cuts, Novak also expressed hope for Gazprom and Chinese producer CNPC to soon agree on the contract conditions for gas sales through the Power of Siberia-2 pipeline. This pipeline has been in talks for years and will carry about 50 billion cubic meters of gas per year from Yamal in northern Russia to China via Mongolia. 

“We expect that the company should reach an agreement as soon as possible,” Novak said.