Official figures from the Russian Finance Ministry on Monday show a 35% decline in fiscal budget revenues in January, compared to the same period last year, reporting a ~$24-billion budget deficit for January.
The budget deficit reflects oil and gas revenue that has declined 46% year-on-year, according to The Associated Press.
Sanctions and an expensive war in Ukraine have both been responsible for the drain.
The budget breakdown comes just days after the Finance Ministry reported a 46% drop in oil and gas revenues in January, year-over-year, due to sanctions on Russian oil exports and discounted prices for Urals crude.
In January, Russian oil and gas revenues dropped to their lowest level since August 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Data also showed that the price of Urals–Russia’s flagship crude–was 42% lower on average than for the same time period in 2022. That discount to Brent crude continued to widen following the EU ban on Russian seaborne crude that went into effect on December 5th.
The Russian Finance Ministry showed Urals priced at $49.48 per barrel in January, compared to $85.64 per barrel a year ago.
One stop-gap effort Moscow is considering is to tax oil companies based on Brent prices rather than urals, Kommersant reported on Friday.
BP has predicted a 25%-42% fall in Russian oil production by 2035, noting a potential 12-million bpd decrease in output due to the curtailment of major new projects and a high rate of reduction in existing operating assets.
This, despite data from Energy Intelligence showing that Russia crude and condensate production actually increased 2% in 2022, with oil production at 10.73 million b/d, above Russia’s ministry for economic development forecast of 10.33 million b/d.
