MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/. Oil prices should reach about $35-40 per barrel, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said in an interview with the ‘Vesti v Subbotu’ (News on Saturday) program on the Rossiya-1 TV channel.

"My estimation is that [the prices] will adjust at the level of about $35-40. There are other estimations, namely by the Russian Ministry of Energy, that it will be higher, over $40. We shall see who is right," he said.

Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Energy predicted that after the current drop in oil prices, the prices will rise to about $45-55 per barrel in the second half of the year. Next year, the prices should remain at the level of $40-45, the ministry said.