Average price of Russia's Urals crude from January to August of 2018 raised by 39.2% compared to the same period of last year, amounting to $69.73 per barrel.
In January-August of 2017, the average price of Urals amounted to $50.09 per barrel, the Russian Finance Ministry reported.
"Average price of Urals in August of 2018 reached $71.72 per barrel, which is 1.4 times higher compared to August of 2017 ($51.02 per barrel)," report published on the Ministry's website said.
Earlier, Reuters reported citing Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak as saying that Russian oil output in September will remain at the same level as it was in July and August.
As Aleksey Kokin, senior analyst at UralSib, said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza, oil market is currently in an unusual position. "Right now there are certain threats when it comes to supply, primarily because of sanctions against Iran and outbreak of conflicts in key regions such as Libya (with potential spread to Saudi Arabia because of the war in Yemen).At the same time, there are producers willing to take some risks and ensure stable price. Saudi Arabia's policy over the past 2-3 months shows that together with Russia, but even without Russia, it's ready to maintain oil price at the level of $70-80 per barrel, and we see that oil can stay at that level in the foreseeable future. I think that it's a fairly stable price, which can grow even more. We can make good forecast for the next year based on current situation," expert believes.
According to him, current level of prices allows Russian oil companies to resume several difficult projects. "It's possible to resume some difficult projects, the problem is that we need technological assistance of international companies. So yeah, prices are pretty high and comfortable, but without help we will have to rely on our own technologies that we had since 2014-2015," Alexei Kokin said.
Leading analyst of the National Energy Security Fund, Igor Yushkov, pointed out that high price of Urals allows to return most of the oil tax revenues to budget. "Our budget was formed based on $40 per barrel price and 65 rubles for $1. Now the price of oil is almost twice as high and the ruble, on the contrary, dropped, so this is a great moment to fill the budget. The question is, will the government revise budget policy to or just send "extra" money to the reserves," he said.
