Russian companies are expected to invest US$22.5 billion (1.3 trillion rubles) in oil production this year, with crude output and exports forecast at the same levels as in 2017, Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday. Russia’s vertically integrated oil companies invested US$23 billion (1.33 trillion rubles) in oil production in 2017, up by 10 percent compared to the 2016 investments of US$21 billion (1.21 trillion rubles), Novak said, as quoted by the TASS news agency. “Last year we had a very large increase of 10%, so maintaining this level would be a good figure,” Novak noted. Despite the OPEC/non-OPEC deal, Russia’s average daily crude oil production inched up again last year, to a 30-year-high of 10.98 million bpd . Russia’s pledge in the production cut deal is to shave off 300,000 bpd from the October 2016 level, which was the country’s highest monthly production in almost 30 […]