MOSCOW, September 19. /ITAR-TASS/. The CEO of Russia’s second-largest oil producer Lukoil Vagit Alekperov has predicted that oil prices on the global market will decrease and further stabilize.

“If previously our budget was based on the oil price of $100 per barrel, now we set the budget based on the price of $95,” Alekperov said on Friday in the interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel.

Alekperov said the global oil market is affected by a growth in the hydrocarbon production rate, in particular, in the United States, Mexico and Iran.

Earlier on Friday, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Western sanctions against Russia have not affected oil prices.

Oil prices dropped to two-year minimum levels on Monday, with Brent crude October contracts trading at $96.57 per barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe for the first time since July 2012.

Investors said the next critical level would be $80 per barrel. But prices will not stay there long as this would make shale oil production in the United States unprofitable.

Oil and natural gas account for about half of Russia’s federal budget revenues.