Sergei Shmatko, the Russian Minister of Energy, made a forecast that 490 million tons of oil will be produced in Russia this year.  “The ‘prognosis’ is that we will have 490 million tons this year,” Shmatko stated. In the way of comparison, last year, Russia produced 488.1 million tons of oil. If this year’s forecast materializes, the result will be 0.4 percent higher than the the figures for 2008.

Igor Sechin, the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, made an earlier forecast in August that Russia’s production in 2009 would be 485 million tons and 490 million tons in 2010.