MOSCOW, September 22 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told parliamentarians Thursday he opposed placing restrictions on Russian oil exports.
"We cannot restrict oil exports to the world market now," the minister said a parliamentary session on the 2006 draft budget.
Kudrin said Russia should take advantage of the favorable situation triggered by high oil prices, that is, produce and sell as much oil as possible to accumulate funds to invest in foreign securities, which could be converted back to cash at any time.
The minister said 90 cents of every dollar of profits from oil sold at above $25 per barrel were being accumulated in Russia's gold and currency reserves, whereas only 10 cents were being invested in oil production development.
According to the Federal State Statistics Service, Russian oil production in January-July 2005 grew 2.5% year on year to 269.7 million metric tons, with domestic oil refining growing by 5.9% to 117.9 million tons and oil exports slipping 0.6% to 146.6 million tons.
