Russia in the World Oil Market: Strategy for Efficient Trading

The article is devoted to the urgent problems of building an effective strategy for Russian oil trading, including the creation of a fundamentally new system for evaluating Russian oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and petroleum products on the external and internal circuits of the Russian fuel market, as well as the formation of national price indicators (benchmarks) that will allow Russia to pursue an independent energy policy. The anti-Russian sanctions have created favorable conditions for the formation of the so-called “grey market” and “price chaos” and have further deepened the problems with incorrect pricing of Russian hydrocarbons. Non-market discounting of Russian oil and petroleum products is once again forcing the Russian government to make significant budget cuts. The Russian budget is designed for a price of $ 69.7 per barrel with a dollar exchange rate of 96.6 rubles, and a drop in the price of the Brent benchmark below $ 70 will be a big challenge for the Russian budget. The main Russian export grades of Urals and ESPO oil are sold with non-market differentials on the world market, due not only to differences in sulfur content, but also to geopolitical risks. The authors of the article propose the adoption of priority consistent measures to create a new system for evaluating Russian oil and petroleum products on external and internal circuits, as well as national price indicators (benchmarks), including (1) the creation of a full-fledged futures market with a full range of relevant derivative financial instruments and mechanisms (futures, forwards, swaps and options) based on the St. Petersburg exchanges (JSC SPIMEX), (2) creation of a Russian pricing agency that allows the launch of over-the-counter price indicators correlating with export netbacks, (3) the creation of a single BRICS energy exchange, which will combine the efforts of the leading BRICS member countries to form a fundamentally new pricing system for global energy resources, taking into account the interests of Russia as a leading raw material power.