Russia Budgets for $40 Oil

摘要

Oil firms may think now is hardly the time to hit them with higher taxes - but Russian producers could face that very prospect as Moscow prepares to amend its 2016 budget, cutting its oil price assumption from $50 per barrel to $40/bbl, and debates how to make up the shortfall. The budget revision would mean a bigger deficit and economic stagnation in 2016 for Russia, which would need to dip into already depleted cash reserves and divest state assets to balance the books. It may not be able to make ends meet without selling off a stake in oil champion Rosneft this year, analysts say.