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Fuel oil production in Russia increased by 7.7 percent during the month of October, according to recent data released by the Russian Energy Ministry, Reuters reports.

Higher winter demand last month led to fuel oil output rising to an average of 177,310 metric tonnes per day.

Gas oil production was also higher in October, up 0.6 percent on the previous month to 187,087 tonnes per day.

Meanwhile, monthly output figures for jet kerosene and gasoline both dropped last month, falling by 14.2 and 4.1 percent respectively compared to levels recorded for September.

Data released by the Energy Ministry showed a total decrease in oil production of 0.4 percent, as the country's refineries processed 4.73 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil, versus 4.75 million bpd in September.

However, in a comparison with Russian refinery output in 2007, last month's figure was 8.8 percent higher than total production during the same month last year.

The release of Russia's latest monthly production figures comes only days after Russia's energy minister, Sergei Shamtko said that Russian companies could reduce output and exports should they become unprofitable.

Speaking to reporters in Siberia last week, Shamtko commented "Oil companies should decide themselves. If it's unprofitable, then they could decide to lower production."

"Almost all OPEC members, probably with the exception of Saudi Arabia, are seriously unhappy about the current oil price levels. The situation today is that many countries are on the brink of production profitability," he added.

"And we expect - and this is our joint opinion with OPEC - that if it continues that way, then we will not only face a substantial cut in oil supplies to the world's markets in the mid-term, but also a drop in production capacities," said Shamtko.

Last month, Russia's leading oil producer, Rosneft increased production from 348,175 bpd in September to 269,862 bpd. Meanwhile, Lukoil, the country's second largest oil company, recorded a 62,011 bpd drop in output from 892,476 to 830,465 bpd.