MOSCOW, June 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russian oil output fell by 0.1% year-on-year to 202 million tons (1.48 billion bbl) in the first five months of 2009, the country's statistics service said on Tuesday.
Primary oil refining dropped slightly by 0.4% to 95.8 million metric tons in the reporting period.
Car gasoline production increased 1.3% to 11.6 million metric tons, diesel output decreased by 2.2% to 27.3 million metric tons and the production of fuel oil fell by 0.3% to 26.8 million metric tons in January-May 2009.
Russia's oil output fell 0.7% year-on-year to 488 million metric tons in 2008. The economics ministry has forecast a 1.1% drop in crude production to 482 million metric tons for 2009.
Igor Sechin, a Russian deputy premier, said last week the country was not planning to cut oil output in the next three years, while further development would depend on investment in geological prospecting.
Meanwhile, the country's gas output went down by 19.2% to 238 billion cubic meters in January-May 2009 against the same period last year.
The Federal State Statistics Service said natural gas output went up 1.6% year-on-year to 663 bcm last year and the country's Customs Service said Russia exported 174.3 bcm of natural gas worth $66.4 billion in 2008.
