Russia previously announced that it would voluntarily cut oil production from March by 500,000 bbl/day, equivalent to 5% of its output or 0.5% of global production. In January, Russia produced 9.8-9.9 million bbl/day.
The market quickly digested the news of Russia's production cut due to the small range.
But oil exports from western ports in Russia could be cut by 25% in March, equivalent to 625,000 bbl/day, said the sources. It is a bigger blow than previously announced production cuts.
Exports to Europe fall
Russia plans to cut oil exports from its western ports by up to 25% in March from February levels in a bid to boost oil prices, the sources said.
Transneft has told at least two oil companies to reduce shipments from western ports in March by 20-25%, the first source said.
This was backed up by another source, who said cuts in oil exports from Russian ports such as Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiisk would be as much as a quarter of what they were in February, but some adjustments were still possible.
Russia typically exports up to 10 million mt of oil per month from the ports of Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiisk, equivalent to 2.5 million bbl/day of Urals crude oil.
Furthermore, there are currently no plans to reduce exports from the Pacific region, the source added. This means that Russia's export cuts in March were mainly aimed at oil destined for Europe, and sales in Asia were not affected.
So far, neither the Russian Energy Ministry nor Transneft has responded to the news.