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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/282adfd4-0a4c-11dd-b5b1-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
Fears emerge over Russia's oil output.

By Carola Hoyos and Javier Blas in London
Published: April 14 2008

'Russian oil production has peaked and may never return to current levels, one of the country's top
energy executives has warned, fuelling concerns that the world's biggest oil producers cannot keep
up with rampant Asian demand.'

'The warning helped on Tuesday to push crude oil prices to a fresh all-time high above $112 a
barrel, threatening to stoke inflation in many countries. '

'Leonid Fedun, the 52-year-old vice-president of Lukoil, Russia's largest independent oil company,
told the Financial Times he believed last year's Russian oil production of about 10m barrels a day
was the highest he would see "in his lifetime". Russia is the world's second biggest oil producer.'

'Mr Fedun compared Russia with the North Sea and Mexico, where oil production is declining
dramatically, saying that in the oil-rich region of western Siberia, the mainstay of Russian output,
"the period of intense oil production [growth] is over". '

'The Russian government has so far admitted that production growth has stagnated, but has shied away
from admitting that post-Soviet output has peaked.'

'Russia was until recently considered as the most promising oil region outside the Middle East. Its
rapid output growth in the early 2000s helped to meet booming Chinese demand and limited the rise in
oil prices. '
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42 Peak charts.
http://dieoff.org/42Countries/42Countries.htm


Jan Rasmussen