19/08/2021
The oil market continues to slide downhill, ending in the negative for the fifth day in a row and once again failing to return to levels above $ 70 per barrel.
At 21.58 Moscow time on Wednesday, futures for Brent in London fell by 1.5% to $ 68.06 per barrel.October contracts for WTI in New York are concluded at $ 65.6, losing 1.9%, and previously quotes fell to 64.78 - the minimum for three months.
Urals oil shipped from Novorossiysk on Tuesday sold to Europe at $ 66.19 per barrel, and on Wednesday the quotation broke the mark of 66. On average over the past week, each barrel of Russian crude was sold for $ 1.9 cheaper than Brent, according to Thomson Reuters.After a 100% rally since November last year, the oil market has felt weak "due to the spread of a more contagious coronavirus delta strain, which poses serious risks to demand," said Sberbank CIB commodity market strategist Mikhail Sheibe.A new dose of frustration was brought by the weekly data of the US Department of Energy, says Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates: although oil stocks in US storage fell by 3.2 million barrels, demand for gasoline was less than supply and, despite the car season, 7 million barrels of unsold fuel.From the highs shown in July, oil prices spiked by 13% and are rapidly approaching the "pain threshold" of the Russian budget: this year it is balanced at $ 60 per barrel, says Natalia Orlova, chief economist at Alfa-Bank.
In the first seven months, the Ministry of Finance collected 13.65 trillion rubles from the federal treasury, including 4.77 trillion oil and gas taxes - 60% more than a year earlier.Although oil production remains almost 10% below pre-crisis levels, the government is rescuing a weak ruble and a jump in gas prices in Europe: Gazkhprom's export revenue has jumped 80% to $ 20 billion (January-June).
At that time, budget revenues grew by almost a third, expenditures increased by more than 8.2%, and on a number of items, including health and social support, were cut.
