Russia stops reporting official oil and gas extraction data

The Russian government has temporarily paused reporting the statistics of oil and natural gas extraction by its petroleum industry.

An order signed by Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on April 26 states that reporting petroleum industry data is to be paused until April 1, 2024.

Monthly industry figures are to be kept secret starting from March 2023; quarterly reports are classified beginning with this year’s first quarter.

Petroleum industry data is essential to economic forecasting. Without it, independent analysts will not be able to predict the country’s GDP or model other macroeconomic processes.

On April 26, Rosstat (Russia’s official statistics bureau) released a report on industrial production in the first quarter of 2023. This report did not include petroleum industry data, as earlier quarterly reports used to.