Urals prices in northwest Europe dropped to $25.85/bl on 13 January, their lowest level since February 2004. There was nothing particularly dis- turbing 12 years ago about prices below $30/bl for Russia, with Urals having been trading in a $20-30/bl range since the start of the decade. Indeed, compared with the late 1990s, when prices plunged to $10/bl, helping precipitate the economic crisis that brought the country to its knees in 1998, those seemed like halcyon days.
展开▼
