Last year, the region produced around 223 million tonnes of oil and gas condensate (4.5 million barrels per day) out of Russia's total 535 million tonnes.
Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin said last week that Russia's oil production is forecast to remain stable until 2025. However, Russia has decided to cut its output by some 500,000 barrels per day until the year-end in order to help balance the market. According to brokerage BCS, Russia has been increasingly using new technologies, including horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, as it's becoming harder to produce oil at depleted reserves. (Reporting by Olesya Astakhova; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Jason Neely)