Putin says Russia happy with crude price of $60–65 per barrel

ST. PETERSBURG, Jun 6 (PRIME) -- Russia feels absolutely comfortable with the oil price of U.S. $60–65 per barrel, President Vladimir Putin said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Thursday.

“The price of $60–65 per barrel is fairly comfortable for us, we have no need to push it upwards,” he said.

Russia’s budget, unlike Saudi Arabia’s, envisages the oil price of $40 per barrel that is why the Middle Eastern state wants higher prices, but they are not necessary for Russia, the president also said.

Russia is not going to join OPEC, but a cooperation mechanism has been created to develop joint decisions. A seasonal rise in demand and regional conflicts will be taken into account while making decisions on the future of the OPEC+ deal.

In November 2016, OPEC and non-OPEC states including Russia first agreed to reduce their oil output to rebalance the market. In December 2018, the participants of the deal decided to cut production by an additional 800,000 barrels per day for OPEC and 400,000 barrels per day for non-OPEC states, including 230,000 barrels per day for Russia, from the level of October 2018.

Russia has weathered economic troubles that appeared several years ago, including sanctions and falling prices for hydrocarbons, metals and other core exports, and now hopes for both internal and foreign investment.

Inflation of 5+% projected for 2019 is better than the government expected after a recent value added tax hike.

Foreign trade surplus by far compensates for capital outflow from Russia.

“Last year we had not a record, but considerable capital outflow of some 66 billion rubles. At the same time, foreign trade surplus is seen at 131 billion rubles, which by far compensated for the outflow,” Putin said.

Trade turnover with the U.S. grew by $5 billion during the presidency of President Donald Trump despite a plenty of sanctions introduced in the period.

Russia is ready for reciprocal steps to ease relations with the European Parliament including cancellation of counter-sanctions if it receives signals that Europe is willing to cooperate.

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