Category:

Russian currency stabilizing despite oil’s fade

Russian currency holding steady despite fade in early 2015 rally in crude oil prices. File Photo by UPI/Alex Volgin. The ruble traded Monday at around 59.27 to the U.S. dollar, recovering from the historic low-water mark of around 62 reached in late 2014. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on the "Vesti on Saturday" television program the nation’s currency has stabilized . "Even if oil prices deviate to a certain extent from the current figures, the ruble will not react much," he said. Brent crude oil prices dipped below $50 per barrel in January, but gained more than 35 percent by early March. The price since the beginning of the month is down nearly 12 percent. A forecast for 2015 from the Russian Economy Ministry said export revenues would decline as Russian energy products wane from the world market, but Siluanov said last week it was unclear how long […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Russia threatens to aim nuclear missiles at Denmark ships if it joins NATO shield

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Russia threatened to aim nuclear missiles at Danish warships if Denmark joins NATO’s missile defense system, in comments Copenhagen called unacceptable and NATO said would not contribute to peace. Denmark said in August it would contribute radar capacity on some of its warships to the missile shield, which the Western alliance says is designed to protect members from missile launches from countries like Iran. Moscow opposes the system, arguing that it could reduce the effectiveness of its own nuclear arsenal, leading to a new Cold War-style arms race. In an interview in the newspaper Jyllands-Posten, the Russian ambassador to Denmark, Mikhail Vanin, said he did not think Danes fully understood the consequences of joining the program. "If that happens, Danish warships will be targets for Russian nuclear missiles," Vanin told the newspaper. Asked to respond, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said Denmark was a staunch member of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Ruble Tops Global Currency Rally as Oil Bounce Adds to Taxes

(Bloomberg) — Russia’s ruble headed for the best weekly gain against the dollar globally on demand from companies rushing to meet a tax deadline and as oil prices rebounded. The ruble is poised for a 4.5 percent advance for the week, the biggest rally among 170 currencies tracked by Bloomberg. Crude oil, the nation’s main export commodity was poised for the first gain in three weeks, paring the decline this month to 12 percent. The ruble’s strength “doesn’t look logical from the fundamental point of view,” Vladimir Vedeneev, chief investment officer at Raiffeisen Capital asset management in Moscow, said in e-mailed comments. “The move seems rather technical. Exporters have been selling the foreign-currency revenue.” Russian companies must pay about 1.3 trillion rubles ($22 billion) in taxes this month, with the largest portion falling due on March 25, according to a Bloomberg survey of five economists. They must pay the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Russia says sanctions ‘destructive’, will act in own interests

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia described "sanctions rhetoric" as destructive on Friday and said it would do what is in its national interests after European Union leaders kept economic sanctions in place over the Ukraine crisis. In comments to reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also accused Kiev of violating the terms of a peace deal for eastern Ukraine that was agreed in the Belarussian capital Minsk. "We prefer to engage in creative matters, not destructive matters such as sanctions rhetoric. So we do not discuss sanctions and the Russian Federation will do what is in its national interests," he said. (Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya, Writing by Timothy Heritage, Editing by Lidia kelly)

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Russian Inflation hits 17 per cent

Russian Inflation hits 17 per cent thumbnail Inflation in Russia has hit a zenith of around 17 per cent, the economy minister said Thursday, as the economic crisis roiling the country takes its toll.”The peak in inflation has not passed but we have reached the highest point and will probably stay at this level for some time,” minister Alexei Ulyukayev was reported as saying by Russian news agencies. “I think that for quite a long time, a month and a half or two months it will be at around 17 per cent,” he said. Inflation has shot up in Russia as the ruble national currency plummeted in value on the back of Western sanctions over Moscow’s role in the Ukraine crisis and falling international oil prices. The steep rise in prices has slashed spending power of households across the nation and Russia is expected to plunge into recession this […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

EU moves towards extending Russia sanctions

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk EU leaders took the first step towards extending their sweeping economic sanctions against Russia on Thursday night, agreeing that the measures would be maintained unless last month’s ceasefire agreement reached in Minsk was implemented in full by Moscow. The communiqué, agreed on the first day of a two-day summit in Brussels, fell short of hopes from some hardline countries — and the summit’s host, European Council president Donald Tusk — for an immediate renewal of the sanctions, which are due to expire in July. But by tying the measures to the Minsk agreement, which among other things requires Russia to secure its border with Ukraine and hand over its control to Ukrainian authorities, officials believe extension is now assured since the Kremlin is not expected to live up to the agreement’s terms. “Our common intention is also very, very clear,” said Mr Tusk at […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Here’s the Next Biggest Threat to Global Crude Oil Prices

A gas flare burns at the central processing plant for oil and gas in the Salym oilfields near Surgut, Russia. Russian crude exports averaged 4.84 million barrels a day last year, a 6.1 percent decrease compared with 2013. Photographer: Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr./Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — The next big threat to oil prices isn’t from OPEC or Bakken shale. It’s Russian samovars, or teapots. Simple refineries that process crude into fuel oil are scaling back, because when oil prices slump, the government reduces the discount that these refiners — known as teapots to those in the industry — get for exporting fuel. They use less crude, freeing it up for sale abroad, which in turn adds to the global glut. Russia may increase oil exports by as much as 250,000 barrels a day this year, according to James Henderson, a senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies who’s […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

G.M. Exiting Russia, for the Most Part

MOSCOW — General Motors on Wednesday announced plans to largely withdraw from the Russian market by the end of the year, becoming the most prominent company to date to express a lack of confidence in the deeply troubled economy. The move reverses years of G.M. investments in Russia , where car sales had boomed. Now, however, the country is struggling with low oil prices and sanctions on its banks, and its economy is expected to contract 4 percent this year. “This decision avoids significant investment into a market that has very challenging long-term prospects,” G.M.’s president, Daniel Ammann, said in a statement. Since Russia annexed Crimea last year and its economy has faltered, other multinational companies have left. G.M. said it would shutter its main factory in the country and wind down sales of Opel brand cars. The decision, the company said, will cost $600 million this year in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Ukraine Wants to Double Gas Transit Fees for Gazprom, Says Energy Minister

ENLARGE A natural gas line outside Donetsk, Ukraine. The country wants to almost double the fees it charges Russia’s Gazprom to transit gas through Ukraine to the European Union. Photo: Getty Images KIEV, Ukraine—Fresh talks on Russian natural gas supplies to Ukraine will begin Friday in Brussels but no deal is imminent as Moscow and Kiev continue to quarrel over prices and transit fees, Ukraine’s energy minister said Thursday. Volodymyr Demchyshyn said that he and his Russian peer, Alexander Novak, earlier Thursday agreed to launch talks in the European Union capital, but said, “Russia doesn’t want to sign any specific documents, but let’s see how they do it.” Ukraine wants to almost double the fees it charges state-owned OAO Gazprom to transit Russian gas through Ukraine to the European Union , Mr. Demchyshyn said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. The two sides need to resolve this, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Russian Energy Minister Novak to Meet Exxon CEO on Wednesday

MOSCOW, March 17 (Reuters) – Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak plans to meet Exxon’s chief executive officer, Rex Tillerson, on Wednesday, a ministry official told Reuters. The official declined to give any more details for the meeting, which comes as Western sanctions, imposed on Russia over its actions in Ukraine, have prevented the U.S. company from participating in several projects in Russia. Tillerson last visited Moscow in June 2014 when he affirmed his commitment to doing business with Russia. Last year, Exxon was forced by the sanctions to suspend its joint operations with Russia’s top oil producer Rosneft in the offshore Arctic, where they successfully performed exploration drilling. A Rosneft spokeswoman declined to comment on any possible meeting of Tillerson and Rosneft’s head, Igor Sechin. The sanctions prevent Western companies from giving Russia technology for Arctic offshore, deepwater and shale oil development. Rosneft will not resume drilling in the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple