Russia reports on oil and gas output

Russian President Vladimir Putin invited energy minister Igor Yusufov to the Kremlin for a briefing on the country's energy sector performance in 2002. Yusufov reported that oil and gas results so far this year were significantly better than in 2001. Oil production which totalled 348 mm tons (7 mm bpd) in 2001 has risen by 8.5 % this year, he said. And there has been a "qualitative improvement in the gas industry's work," he said.

Gas production has risen by 3.3 % this year. Even Gazprom, which accounted for just under 90 % of Russia's 590 bn cm gas output in 2001, has succeeded in increasing output by just over 3 %.
President Putin and Igor Yusufov also discussed the upcoming meeting of CIS energy ministers scheduled to open. Officials from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Kyrghizstan have already arrived in Moscow to attend this event. So far no minister from Turkmenistan has showed up.