RUSSIA - Nov. 15 - Moscow Will Not Agree Significant Oil Production Cut.

Visiting Spain, PM Mikhail Kasyanov says Moscow will not agree to "any significant reduction" in oil exports, despite OPEC's pressure. (OPEC officials warn the oil market is headed for a "crisis" that threatens to drive prices towards $10/b). In a phone interview from Spain, Alexei Volin, the deputy head of the government's administration, clarifies Kasyanov's comments: Moscow already agreed to a small cut in output, and deeper cuts could endanger Russia's obligations to customers in Europe. (This indicates Moscow will not co-operate with OPEC's desire that the biggest non-member producers cut output by a combined 500,000 b/d. On Nov. 12, Kasyanov announced a small cut in output of 30,000 b/d, a move the visiting Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi called "disappointing". Russia, the No. 2 oil exporter, is the fastest-growing producer outside of OPEC. Its rising exports have frustrated attempts by OPEC to support the oil price. That tension became public on Nov. 14, when OPEC members, at a meeting in Vienna, called on Moscow, and two other non-OPEC producers, Norway and Mexico, to reduce output. Naimi said OPEC "absolutely" would not go ahead with its planned production cut of 1.5m b/d without co-operation from those three countries - see Arabs-OPEC). But the Deputy PM in charge of oil exports Viktor Khristenko says the government has time to consider OPEC's request. Dmitri Avdeyev, oil analyst at United Financial Group, a Moscow-based investment bank, says: "Russia wants to appease OPEC, but it will not do anything concrete. Export might fall because of seasonal factors but production will continue to rise". (The government has the right to control the exports of Russian oil companies. But unlike in Mexico and Norway, a vast majority of the industry is in private hands, and the government has been hesitant to force companies to cut).