Translated material
First Deputy Prime Minister Belousov: Russia will have to live for a long time with oil at $35 per barrel
First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Andrei Belousov believes that oil prices of around $35 per barrel will remain for a long time.
“We have entered a fairly new stable reality and we will have to live for a fairly long time at approximately equilibrium prices of around $35,” Belousov said.
At the same time, he admitted that prices could go up, in particular if the OPEC+ agreement is restored in some format.
Belousov does not believe that oil prices could fall to $20 per barrel and remain there for a long time, “for the simple reason that no one really needs this – neither the producing countries nor the consuming countries.”
“Therefore, the price in the range where it has stopped now can be stable,” the First Deputy Prime Minister concluded.
- Global oil prices collapsed after OPEC+ participants failed to agree on March 6 to extend the agreement to curb oil production.
- As of the evening of March 13, Brent oil, to which the prices of Russian grades of oil are linked, was trading on the ICE exchange in London at $33.29 per barrel.
- In February, the Ministry of Economic Development predicted that the average annual price of Urals oil would be $57.7 per barrel.
- The head of the Accounts Chamber, former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, said on March 12 that if oil costs about $35 per barrel, then GDP growth by the end of 2020 will be zero. Kudrin did not rule out a recession with such oil prices. The current head of the Ministry of Finance Anton Siluanov called Kudrin's forecast overly pessimistic.