Oil Market Volatility Continues Amidst Mixed Messages from OPEC and Russia

Despite Russia's pledge to cut oil production by 500,000 bpd from March onwards, tanker-tracking data shows that Russian crude oil exports by sea are rising instead of falling. The four-week average volume of exports was the highest since Bloomberg started monitoring Russian crude shipments in detail at the beginning of 2022. The International Energy Agency (IEA) said that Russia had failed so far to cut its oil production by 500,000 bpd as promised, and it may even be looking to boost output to compensate for lost revenues.