Russian January Oil Output Up 1.6% On-Year

Russia produced 10.21 million barrels of crude oil a day in January, slightly up from December, but short of the record high of 10.26 million barrels a day reached in October last year, statistics from the Energy Ministry showed Wednesday.

Russia--the world's biggest oil producer ahead of Saudi Arabia--produced 43.189 million metric tons of oil in January, which is 1.6% higher than in the same month last year.

Russian oil exports fell 5.6% to 19.71 million tons, while supplies to the country's refineries increased 4.5% to 21.63 million tons.

Natural gas production totaled 63.697 billion cubic meters, down 0.3% from January 2010. Domestic consumption of natural gas fell 12% to 54.85 billion cubic meters, while cold weather in Europe caused exports to increase by 31% to 24.36 billion cubic meters.

Output at state-controlled gas firm OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) in January fell 3.7% on year to 49.15 billion cubic meters.

-By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]