Oil pipeline. Illustrative photo.
Stockholm – The Russian Federation's income from oil and gas exports fell by 38 percent year-on-year in January to $18.5 billion (CZK 409 billion), the International Energy Agency (IEA) said today ). Export earnings, which are Moscow's most lucrative, have been squeezed by Western sanctions and price caps imposed over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Last January was the last month before the invasion.
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IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said Western measures targeting energy exports from Russia had achieved their goal. This was to stabilize the oil market and reduce Moscow's income from oil and gas exports. “We expect this decline in oil and gas revenues to be steeper in the coming months. And even steeper in the medium term due to lack of access to technology and investment,” said Birol, quoted by Reuters.
International restrictions imposed on Russia in response to the war in Ukraine, including a price cap on Russian oil at $60 per barrel, have caused Russian Urals crude to sell significantly cheaper than North Sea Brent crude. The European Union has also banned the import of Russian oil by sea since December and imposed sanctions on the export of oil processing technology to Russia. Restrictions on the import of Russian oil have also been introduced by the United States and Britain.
To finance its budget expenditures, Moscow relies precisely on revenues from oil and natural gas – last year they amounted to 11.6 trillion rubles (3.4 trillion CZK ). Now Russia is forced to start selling international reserves to cover the deficit increased by the cost of its invasion of Ukraine.
