Rosneft's Sechin: Russia losing out to OPEC+ due to different exports structure

Igor Sechin, head of the Russian energy giant Rosneft, said on Saturday that Russia is losing out to OPEC+ countries due to a smaller share of its oil exports in production.

Speaking at an economic forum, Sechin, a long-standing ally of President Vladimir Putin, said some OPEC+ oil-producing countries exports as much as 90% of their output whereas Russia supplies the global market with only half of its production.

"That puts our country in a less advantageous position under the current mechanism for assessing the impact and access to key markets," he said. "In this regard, it seems appropriate to monitor not only production quotas, but also oil export volumes, given the different sizes of domestic markets."

Currently, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, regulates only production, not exports.

Amid flagging oil prices, OPEC+ agreed on a new oil output deal earlier this month while Saudi Arabia, the group's biggest producer, pledged to make a deep cut to its output in July on top of a broader OPEC+ deal to limit supply into 2024.