Russian Oil and Gas Industry: News #2

miketheterrible wrote:If anyone read the article, it is obviously a method for Belarus to try and blackmail Russia.

It says that the foreign minister of Belarus hopes to have more leverage in talks with Russia now that prices are low and that US is willing to sell oil to Belarus

Belarus doesn't actually have much money. Instead they purchase from borrowed money from Russia and refine it cheap and sell it to Europe at a profit. But they still have to pay back the loans.

PapaDragon wrote:

miketheterrible wrote:...
Belarus doesn't actually have much money. Instead they purchase from borrowed money from Russia and refine it cheap and sell it to Europe at a profit. But they still have to pay back the loans.

Just let them buy from USA

Once they burn through the money offer them oil again this time with more strings attached

It ain't particle physics

miketheterrible wrote:

PapaDragon wrote:

miketheterrible wrote:...
Belarus doesn't actually have much money. Instead they purchase from borrowed money from Russia and refine it cheap and sell it to Europe at a profit. But they still have to pay back the loans.

Just let them buy from USA

Once they burn through the money offer them oil again this time with more strings attached

It ain't particle physics

Yeah, I say so.

Give Belarus loans and so they end up blowing it quick on US oil, they will go broke fast. And then keep giving them loans. Wait till it becomes far too out of control the debt and then start asking for your money back. And then if they can't make sure any further agreements with oil trade stipulates they buy Russian only set at what Russia demands. If they don't then take them to court.

PhSt wrote:NATO media is quick to launch a propaganda blitz directed at Russia, greatly exaggerating  the sharp fall of the ruble in connection to the massive drop in oil prices.

Russia Sees Oil & Gas Income Fall By Almost $40 Billion

Russia’s revenues from oil and gas will be US$39.5 billion (3 trillion rubles) lower than planned, due to the tumbling oil prices, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Wednesday, adding that Russia’s budget will be in deficit this year.

The coronavirus pandemic and the lower economic activity, coupled with oil prices half the level before Russia and Saudi Arabia broke up the OPEC+ production cut deal two weeks ago, will weigh on Russia’s budget this year, which will tip into deficit.

Russia’s economy is not going as well as one would have hoped, the finance minister admitted today, saying that the oil price factor alone is set to reduce the country’s budget income by nearly US$39.5 billion compared to earlier estimates.

In case of budget deficit, Russia will use reserves from the National Wealth Fund (NWF), Siluanov said on Wednesday.

According to analysts at Gazprombank, cited by Reuters, the fund has enough reserves to compensate for lower budget revenues due to low oil prices for more than five years.

Last week, a day after oil prices collapsed in the worst drop in nearly three decades—courtesy of the renewed Saudi-Russia rivalry on the oil market – Russia’s Finance Ministry said that Moscow had enough resources to cover budget shortfalls amid oil prices at $25-30 a barrel for six to ten years.  

The price of the Russian export grade Urals dropped far below $42.40 a barrel as oil prices tumbled by 30 percent after Saudi Arabia launched an all-out price war with Russia following the collapse of the OPEC+ group.

The $42.40 Urals price is the price at which Russia’s budget is balanced, the Russian Finance Ministry said last week, noting that the country’s NWF had as of March 1 liquid assets worth US$150.1 billion, or 9.2 percent of Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Lower oil prices are likely to persist for some time, considering the huge demand destruction in the coronavirus outbreak and the coming flood of extra supply on the already oversupplied market as both Russia and Saudi Arabia pledge to boost supply in the new feud between the former allies.

Big_Gazza wrote:The Saudis truly are a genetically stupid and useless people.  Nothing but in-bred goat-raping Bedouins...

Cold beer?  Check.
Popcorn? Check.
Gleeful sense of anticipation at watching these Wahabbi scumbags and Uncle Scam fall on their faces and collapse in the dust?  Double fuckin' check.  

Hole wrote:And the Aramco IPO was a desaster.

The current situation on the oil market is not a big problem for the Russian oil industry and, in particular, for Rosneft, said the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin.

“For the Russian oil industry, it seems to me that there are no big problems in general. We have one of the best resource bases in the world as a whole, for all companies. Rosneft, even in conditions of, say, abandonment of new exploration projects, can produce about 22 years without reducing production, ”Sechin said on the Russia 24 television channel.

According to him, Rosneft’s operating costs are comparable to those of Saudi Aramco.

“Operating costs are comparable to those of Saudi Aramco. We have $ 3.1 per barrel of oil produced. They have about $ 2.5-2.8 there, ”the head of Rosneft emphasized.

“Therefore, here too we can work calmly, efficiently, while we do not dump, unlike them. Therefore, our effectiveness may even be higher, ”he concluded.

On March 6, 2020, Vienna hosted a meeting of OPEC ministers and non-cartel states participating in the agreement to reduce oil production (OPEC + deal). OPEC + countries did not agree to extend the agreement after March 2020. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak explained that no OPEC + country will have obligations to reduce oil production from April 1, 2020. At the same time, Novak noted that Russian oil production from April 1 will depend on the plans of Russian oil companies.

On March 18, for the first time in 17 years, the price of Brent crude oil fell below $ 25 per barrel, and WTI crude oil dropped below $ 21 per barrel.