Europe has wanted to wean itself from Russian natural gas ever since supplies from its eastern neighbor dropped during freezing weather in 2009. Almost a decade later, the region has never been more dependent.
When Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin met at the Group of 20 summit in Mexico in 2012, Europe was reeling from the Greek debt crisis and the Arab world was aflame from Libya to Syria.
Lukoil said commercial production has started at the Vladimir Filanovsky field in the Caspian Sea.
Two years ago, the Kremlin’s oil flagship was foundering, hit by falling prices and international sanctions just as it faced $20 billion in debt payments.
Russia said it is ready to join a proposed cap on oil output by OPEC members.
Vladimir Putin said he’d like OPEC and Russia, producers of half of the world’s oil, to reach a deal to freeze supply and expects the dispute over Iran’s participation can be resolved.
Vladimir Putin said Russia is pushing ahead with plans to sell a fifth of Rosneft PJSC, the country’s largest listed oil producer, as the government seeks to cut its budget deficit.
Vladimir Putin’s economy has been shrinking for 18 months but he still doesn’t have a plan to get it going again.
The European Union has extended sanctions against Russia for six more months to keep pressure on Moscow to respect the peace agreement in Ukraine.
Russia’s Rosneft PJSC could be worth as much as $130 billion, Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin said as President Vladimir Putin is reported to consider selling a stake in the state oil giant to China and India.
Vladimir Putin is considering selling part of Russia’s corporate crown jewels to China and India as the president struggles to meet spending commitments before his possible re-election bid in less than two years.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country has not "definitively" cancelled either the South Stream or Turkstream gas export projects.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for a meeting with top managers of Russia’s leading oil producers.
Neither a recession nor a collapse in revenue has yet been enough to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin that it’s time to join with OPEC in cutting oil output to boost prices. His reasons may be pragmatic rather than political.
Russia’s economy minister warned that the nation is facing years of oil prices at about $50 as a sluggish global economy ushers in a long cycle of low commodities prices. The world’s largest energy exporter must continue financial support for non-commodities exports to buoy the nation’s shrinking economy, Alexei Ulyukayev told a conference Wednesday in Moscow. Measures to help growth by encouraging local food production are starting to pay off, according to First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. “We have entered a period of low prices for commodities, a long commodities cycle that’s ongoing and that will continue for a number of years,” Ulyukayev said. “I don’t see any sharp slumps but, relatively speaking, the oil price will be $50, $50 plus for years.”
Fifteen years of oil at $50 a barrel isn’t the worst nightmare for Russian central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina.
Russian oil output rose to a post-Soviet record last month as producers take advantage of the weak ruble to push ahead with drilling. The nation’s production of crude and condensate advanced to 10.74 million barrels a day, 1 percent more than a year earlier and topping a record set in June, according to data from the Energy Ministry’s CDU-TEK unit.
Russia is bracing for more foreign asset seizures over the defunct Yukos Oil Co. after France and Belgium began enforcing a $50 billion damages award, a Kremlin adviser said. France arrested insignificant funds in accounts of Russian companies and diplomatic missions at the local subsidiary of OAO VTB Bank, Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said Thursday. Belgium earlier served Russian state-owned lenders and entities with seizure notices as part of a 1.65 billion-euro ($1.9 billion) court ruling, ordering them to declare assets belonging to the Russian state or debts to it.
Russia’s economy showed signs of recovery in the first and second quarters amid a declining dependence on oil, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said. “Oil prices are not as important to the Russian economy as before,” Dvorkovich told Bloomberg TV Monday at the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Jakarta, adding that other factors such as the global environment and Russia’s own polices influence its economy. “As far as oil prices are concerned, we can live with different prices and still grow.” US-traded Russian stocks last week posted their longest streak of weekly gains in two years as higher oil prices and a stronger ruble boosted the outlook for companies that depend on domestic demand.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has hailed the nation’s economic performance. Speaking in a televised call-in show with the nation, Mr Putin said the nation’s economic performance has remained strong, despite Western sanctions slapped on Russia over the Ukrainian crisis and a slump in global oil prices.
The Russian economy must adapt to the reality of oil prices that could fall as low as $40 a barrel, President Vladimir Putin said as he faces the worst financial crisis since coming to power in 2000. “I don’t know how quickly it will happen if prices stay at today’s level, or if they will drop lower than $60, $40,” Putin said today at his annual press conference in Moscow. “The economy will structure itself accordingly, however much is necessary.” The US and Saudi Arabia, which with Russia are the world’s three biggest crude producers, may be colluding to push down the price of oil, Putin said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he believes peace in Ukraine is possible but that neither side is fully upholding a peace deal struck in September. In an interview with German television, Mr Putin said he is convinced it is possible to end the deadlock in east Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels have been battling Kiev’s troops in a conflict that has claimed at least 3,500 lives since March. But he also said that neither the rebels nor Ukrainian troops had fully withdrawn from key locations in the region to create a buffer zone, a key part of a truce deal agreed to in September.