The Blubber

Per The New York Times

Russia's oil export reportedly dropped by $4 billion in 2022, down to $12.6 billion. The country has decided to redirect its oil exports to the Asian market as it faces penalties from the West.

Oil revenues in Russia reportedly fell 40% due to sanctions year-on-year in January. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's non-resident fellow Sergey Vakulenko gave a statement regarding how the oil prices affected Russia, per Reuters.

Vakulenko: "Low official oil price meant that the Russian state budget has suffered in recent weeks,"

Russia is experiencing another round of sanctions, this time coming from the European Union and its embargo on diesel, gasoline, and other refined oil products coming from Russia.

A former State Department sanctions official, Edward Fishman, shares how the effects of the sanctions could be permanent. Since Russia's war started, the country has been making a significant inflow from its oil.

Fishman: “Now that these sanctions are in place on Russia’s oil sector, I think you have got to assume they are a permanent fixture of the market.”

Recently, the International Monetary Fund said that oil price limits would not likely affect Russian oil exporter volumes. The current cap on the oil price is $60 per barrel.

The Fund also noted that the Russian economy is expected to grow by 0.3% in 2023 after growing by 2.2% the year before. To deal with the situation, Russia started to focus its efforts on redirecting crude exports to other countries.

The redirecting efforts were towards India, China, and Turkey. Vakulenko also noted that despite what was happing, Russia was still a force to be reckoned with in the global energy market.

Vakulenko: “Russia remains a formidable force on the global energy market... Opposing such a major player is not easy at all, and won’t happen in a day.”

In July 2022, Russia officially defaulted on foreign debt for the first time since 1918. It officially shut off gas to the EU in September via its Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

See flow at unusualwhales.com/flow.

Other News:

• Russia defaults on debt
• Russia shuts off gas to EU

Resources:

The New York Times

Reuters