Secondary sanctions ‘squeezing oil revenues’: Russia central bank
Russian revenues from oil exports are being squeezed by Western sanctions that are hampering payments, Russia’s central bank chief has said.
‘After the decline at the beginning of the year, exports have been rebounding, driven by the increase in oil prices,’ Elvira Nabiullina said in a statement, 22 March. ‘However, secondary sanctions hinder this process,’ she added.
But, she said, difficulties are being overcome: ‘Russian banks and companies are finding different ways [of making payments] with different countries, and are quite flexible in changing these methods when difficulties increase,’ she told the TASS news agencies.
According to February-published research from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (‘CREA’), ‘Russia’s monthly fossil fuel export revenues fell by 10% (EUR 70 mn per day) in January 2024 compared to the prior month.’ It also said that ‘a price cap of USD 30 per barrel would have slashed Russia’s revenue by EUR 41 bn (25%) since the sanctions were imposed in December 2022 until the end of January 2024,’ adding, ‘From introducing oil sanctions until the end of January 2024, thorough enforcement of the price cap would have slashed Russia’s revenues by 9% (EUR 14.2 bn).
In January alone, full enforcement of the price cap would have cut revenues by 7% (approximately EUR 0.8 bn).’
