According to the data, on the whole, the cost of oil per barrel has been reduced by nine percent. However, a closer look shows that this is in large part due to Russia skewing the numbers, an article on the analytical website OilPrice.com read.
Between 2014 and 2015, Russia managed to reduce costs by 30 percent while North Sea producers decreased costs by 20 percent, Canada by 18 percent, and China – by nine percent.
If Russia was removed from the data, the average global reduction would just four percent.
"Russia’s unusual opex (operating expenses) improvements are largely due to the country’s currency, however, and not necessarily to operational efficiency," the article read.
The rapid devaluation of ruble driven by Western sanctions and low oil prices has decreased oil production costs in Russia. As oil sells in US dollars, Russian oil producers have benefited from the devaluation of the national currency.
On Monday, global oil prices reached a 15-month high after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia will take part in an oil supply cap deal with OPEC.
"Russia is ready to join the joint measures to limit production, and encourages other oil exporting countries to do so," Putin said at the World Energy Congress.
"This will not interfere with the work of market mechanisms. On the contrary, it will accelerate market rebalancing," he added.
After the deal was announced global crude prices topped $50 a barrel.
Global oversupply and stagnating demand have caused oil prices to plunge from $115 per barrel in June 2014 to less than $30 per barrel in January 2016. Prices recovered in May, reaching a peak of over $50 per barrel in early June, but fell again and have fluctuated between $40 and $50 per barrel.
