Russia is surpassing Saudi Arabia in oil exports for the first time since the Soviet Union’s collapse as Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin exploits OPEC production cuts to gain market share.

Exports of crude oil and refined products from Russia rose to 7.4 million barrels a day in the second quarter, from 7.25 million in the first quarter, according to Energy Ministry data. Saudi shipments fell to about 7 million barrels a day, from 7.39 million, according to International Energy Agency estimates of output and domestic demand.

Investors had expected Russian supplies to decline this year after Mr. Putin’s deputy, Igor Sechin, told the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in December that his government was ready to limit production to support prices. Instead, Russia is providing tax breaks for new fields in Siberia. Rosneft, Lukoil and BP’s Russian venture, TNK-BP, all pumped more as prices rose 54 percent, to near $69 a barrel.

“In no uncertain terms, Russia has been the biggest beneficiary of OPEC’s sacrifice,” Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib Financial, said during an interview in Moscow. “Higher prices have equaled a $20 billion tax windfall.”

The extra barrels may undermine OPEC efforts to reduce inventories and keep members from exceeding their quotas after the group’s meeting, which is scheduled for Wednesday in Vienna.

According to the median of 34 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg, the price of oil is predicted to fall 4.7 percent in the third quarter, from the average so far this quarter, to $64.50 a barrel. It rose to a 10-month high of $75 on Aug. 25, and was at $69.50 in early morning trading in New York on Tuesday.

OPEC agreed during three meetings last year to reduce supply by 4.2 million barrels a day, the biggest cutback in the group’s history, after the price plunged to a low in December 2008 of $32.40 from a peak of $147.27 in July 2008.

Russia’s crude oil production climbed 1.3 percent in August from the same month in 2008, to 9.97 million barrels a day, and exports expanded 5.9 percent, according to the Energy Ministry’s data service, CDU-TEK. The increase came after the largest producer, Rosneft, began pumping from its new Vankor field in Siberia.

In March, while Russian politicians hinted at possible supply cuts, the Lukoil chief executive officer, Vagit Alekperov, said his company aimed to raise output 1.5 percent this year.

Edward Morse, head of economic research at LCM Commodities in New York, said, “If Russian production had fallen as much as people had forecast, and it were 600,000 to 700,000 barrels a day lower than it is today, the market would be significantly tighter.”

Whether Russia can sustain the gain “is a question of considerable controversy,” Mr. Morse said. “I’m of the opinion that Russian production is going to grow.” Oil will be needed to fill a Far Eastern pipeline, under construction, that will supply China and the Pacific region, he said.

Russia already exported more energy than any other country, with shipments from the state-run Gazprom natural gas company, the world’s largest producer, included. The Moscow-based company’s gas production last year was equivalent to 9.9 million barrels of oil a day, compared with Saudi Arabia’s 9.2 million barrels of crude, according to Gazprom and Bloomberg estimates.

Russian gas sales to Europe would also benefit from OPEC’s effort to raise the value of crude because some gas contracts are linked to oil prices.

Saudi Arabia had long been the top oil supplier. Only last year, Saudi Arabia was pumping about 10 million barrels a day, but it has now chosen to reduce its output.

Soviet central planners pushed Russian output to 11.48 million barrels a day in 1987. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and Russia’s 1998 financial crisis, production tumbled to about half that amount by 1999.

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