Russia's Economic Development and Trade Ministry has prepared a report on the country's economic development until 2020, envisaging a range of scenarios for oil output. All the scenarios project slower oil production growth until 2020 compared with previous years when oil output grew at an annual rate of 10%.
According to the ministry, the forecast for Russia's development in the next 12 years predicts that in the best case scenario, "oil output will peak at 535 million metric tons by 2020, stabilize at this level until 2025 and fall to 530 million metric tons (3.88 billion barrels) by the end of the projected period."
The inertial, or worst-case, scenario projects a minimal growth in oil output to 500 million tons (3.67 billion barrels) by 2010 and a fall to 490 million tons by 2030 (3.59 billion barrels).
