According to overseas media on May 27th, local industry insiders in Russia said on May 26th that Russia's influential Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin recently held a second meeting with senior oil executives in two weeks to discuss how to avoid a decline in oil production this year.

    A well-informed source told Reuters that Xie Qin seems to have received a task to prevent a decline in oil production. Another well-informed source said that on May 24th, Xie Qin requested oil companies to maintain oil production levels at a time when the Russian government was preparing to reduce the tax burden on the oil industry.

    According to informed sources, the CEOs attending the second meeting chaired by Xie Qin are from Russia's largest state-owned oil production company, Rosneft, Russia's largest independent oil production company, Lukoil, Russia's third-largest oil production company, Surgut Oil and Gas Company, and Rosneft.

    In 2000, he was appointed as the Deputy Director of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation and in March 2004, he became the Deputy Director and Presidential Assistant of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation. After Putin became the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation government earlier this month, he was promoted to the position of Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government. Putin's preferred successor, Dmitry Medvedev, was elected as the President of the Russian Federation in March.

    Putin once requested that the chairman of Russia's largest state-controlled oil production company, Rosneft, pay attention to Russia's energy sector.

    Xie Qin said earlier this month that he believes Russia's oil production will not decrease this year, although some industry analysts believe that Russia's poor oil production in the first four months of this year will inevitably lead to a decline in oil production this year.

    Source: Sinopec News Network, May 28, 2008