- Russia’s oil and gas revenues are expected to rise despite Ukrainian attacks on energy infrastructure.
- Oil and gas revenues are a key way for Russia to finance its war in Ukraine.
- Russia says it has successfully rerouted its oil supplies and limited the effects of Western sanctions.
Russia’s oil and gas revenues for April are expected to roughly double year-on-year despite increasing Ukrainian attacks on energy infrastructure, according to a Reuters report.
The news agency forecasts that Russian oil and gas revenues for the month will amount to 1.292 billion rubles, or about $14 billion, up from 648 billion rubles, or about $7 billion.
Earlier this week, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters that the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) carried out drone strikes on two Oil depots owned by Rosneft in the Smolensk region of Russia.
The source noted that the SBU continued to target “logistics that supply fuel to the Russian army in Ukraine.”
“These facilities are and will remain our entirely legitimate targets,” they said.
Despite Russia’s strong revenue forecast for April, it appears that Ukraine’s strikes are having some success.
Bloomberg reported said this week that Russian oil refining was at an 11-month low due to flooding and Ukraine’s drone campaign.
Between April 11 and 17, Russia processed 5.22 million barrels of crude oil per day, Bloomberg reported, citing a person with knowledge of industry data.
The report said this figure was 10,000 barrels per day lower than the previous seven-day average.
Reuters said it made the calculations using “data from industry sources and official statistics on oil and gas production, refining and supply to domestic and international markets.”
April data is expected to be released by the Russian Finance Ministry in early May, according to the report.
Oil and gas revenues are one of the main ways Russia finances its war in Ukraine, and their significant year-over-year increase highlights the difficulty Western countries have had in attempt to impose effective sanctions on its economy.
The West has taken a number of steps to try to limit Russia’s energy revenues.
Among these measures, the United States and the United Kingdom banned Russian oil and gas, the EU banned the maritime import of Russian crude, and G7 leaders agreed to set a price ceiling for crude oil. Russian at 60 dollars per barrel.
But Russia claims to have largely succeeded in circumventing these measures.
In December last year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that almost all Russian oil exports in 2023 were shipped to China and India, adding that the European share of crude exports had fallen from around 40-45% to only 4-5%. .
“The main partners in the current situation are China, whose share has increased to around 45-50%, and of course India… Previously, India had practically no supplies; in two years, the total share of supplies to India increased to 40%,” Novak said.
“As for the restrictions and embargoes introduced on supplies to Europe and the United States… this has only accelerated the process of redirecting our energy flows,” he added.
This news comes despite the intensification of Ukrainian strikes against Russian energy infrastructure.
Firefighters extinguish oil tanks at a storage facility that local authorities say caught fire after the military shot down a Ukrainian drone, in the town of Klintsy, Bryansk region, Russia, on 19 January 2024. Russian Emergency Ministry/Reuters
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