Following last year’s crisis, which resulted in a sharp reduction in capital expenditures for exploration, Russia’s oil and gas finds plummeted to their lowest level in five years in the first half of 2021, according to data and analytics firm GlobalData.

According to GlobalData estimates, Russian companies discovered oil and gas in six extremely minor fields in the first half of this year, adding only 36 million barrels to reserves, equivalent to less than four days of Russian daily oil production.

While Russian oil production and revenues have benefited this year from much higher oil prices due to OPEC+ cuts and rebounding global demand, exploration has continued to be harmed by the COVID-induced crisis in 2020, which has forced companies to cut capex for exploration drilling, according to Anna Belova, Oil & Gas Analyst at GlobalData.

Belova said: “To retain its place as one of the top oil and gas producing nations, Russia needs to ensure a steady pace of discoveries to replace produced reserves. Otherwise, the effects of COVID-19 and reduced investments will be felt by the Russian oil and gas sector well after the pandemic subsides.”

Russia has been able to increase its oil output in recent months as a result of the OPEC+ cuts being eased per the deal in which Russia leads the non-OPEC producers. This has been aided by the recovery in demand. According to Bloomberg estimates based on statistics from the Russian energy ministry, it saw its crude oil and condensate production grow for the second month in a row in October, reaching 10.843 million barrels per day (bpd) last month.

Because Russia’s condensate production, estimated at 800,000 to 900,000 barrels per day (bpd), is not included in the OPEC+ production limits, it’s difficult to know how much crude oil Russia is pumping. Because the data from the energy ministry does not distinguish between crude oil and condensate production, traders and analysts estimate crude output by estimating condensate production levels.