MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/. The Russian economy has the necessary margin of safety to get through the volatility in the oil market, while the demand reduction was predictable, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"I want to remind you of the president’s repeated statement: amid this turbulence and volatility of world markets, the Russian economy has the necessary margin of safety to dump this temporary instability," he said.
Peskov added that industry experts began to register "the decline in demand for oil and oil products on world markets even earlier."
The Kremlin official refrained from making predictions about how long the uncertainty in the global oil markets would last. "We won’t be reading tea leaves, let’s leave it to experts," he commented.
However, he stressed that what is going on the market is "an objective fact."
"Similar dynamics and similar volatility were predicted," he noted.
New arrangements within OPEC+ framework
Nobody excludes the possibility of coming to terms within the OPEC+ oil production capping deal framework, Dmitry Peskov stated.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak already commented on this topic, the press secretary noted. "I will not add anything in this regard. Nobody rules out such a possibility," he added.
OPEC+ agreement participants failed to decide on further oil production cuts in view of the falling demand due to the coronavirus spread last week. All the limitations in oil production will be lifted from April 1.
On March 9, the ruble fell sharply against the US and European currencies amid a severe collapse in oil prices after the failure of negotiations on reduction of oil production in Vienna.
The dollar-to-ruble rate on the international Forex market exceeded 75 rubles. The euro-to-ruble rate rose above 85 rubles. Last time, both foreign currencies were at this level in 2016.
At the height of the trading on the ICE Exchange in London, the cost of futures for Brent crude oil with settlement in May 2020 fell to $31.02 per barrel. Later Brent crude price began to win back positions. The cost of the April WTI oil futures dropped to $27.59 per barrel. Later WTI also recouped the losses a bit.
Oil prices fell amid the news that OPEC+ countries had failed to agree on an additional reduction in oil production following lower demand due to the outbreak of coronavirus. OPEC proposed to further reduce production by 1.5 mln barrels per day until the end of this year. However, Russia and Kazakhstan opposed this proposal.