President of Russia Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday (October 12) that Russia plans to hold oil production and exports at current levels until 2025, saying Moscow would not cede its world-leading position in the global energy market despite Western sanctions, Reuters reports.
"Esteemed colleagues, Russia is one of the key players on the global energy market. In terms of oil and gas production, electricity generation and coal production, our country is among the leaders. Despite sanctions and infrastructure sabotage, we do not intend to give up our (market) position," Putin says.
"Russia's oil production has already overcome the recession and is even slightly higher than last year's level. We plan that, until 2025, overall oil exports and oil production in our country will remain at about the current level."
"We could take the volumes of gas lost from supplies through the Nord Stream pipelines - along the bottom of the Baltic Sea - and move them to the Black Sea region. This would, therefore, make Turkey the primary route to transport our natural gas to Europe, creating the largest gas hub for Europe in Turkey. If, of course, our partners are interested in that."
Putin also hailed the OPEC+ group, which last week announced it would slash production in a bid to keep oil prices high, and said Russia intends to carry on working with the Saudi Arabia-led OPEC group.
