BREAKING NEWS: Russian oil prices have plummeted to their lowest level since the war began, Bloomberg reports.

The discount on Russia’s most popular oil is approaching a historical record.

Russia is selling its oil at the lowest prices since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg reports , citing data from the Argus Media agency.

“Urals crude oil from the Black Sea and ESPO crude oil from the Pacific Ocean were trading at their lowest prices since the start of the war,” the publication notes.

Bloomberg reports that export prices for Urals, Russia’s most popular crude oil from the Baltic ports, fell by approximately $2.40 per barrel between December 1 and 7, to $41.16.

In Novorossiysk, the most popular Russian oil fell by $2.80 per barrel during the reporting period, to $38.28.

The price of ESPO crude oil, which is mainly supplied to China, fell by $1.60 and traded on average at $52.36 per barrel.

There’s also good news for another major Russian “client,” India. Between December 1 and 7, the price of Russian crude oil for delivery to India fell by $1 to $57.70 per barrel, a new low since March 2023.

The publication notes that the discount on Russian Urals crude relative to the benchmark Brent crude has reached $25.80. Since the imposition of US sanctions against Lukoil and Rosneft, this discount has doubled.

It should be noted that the discount on Russian crude is slowly approaching the historical record of May 2022, when Urals was selling for $34 less than Brent.

Despite falling oil prices, Russia increased its oil exports. Between December 1 and 7, daily exports averaged 4.24 million barrels, 290,000 barrels per day more than the previous week. Journalists note that this is “the highest level since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.”

At the same time, more and more oil is becoming stuck in tankers at sea. The publication estimates that nearly 180 million barrels of Russian oil are stored in tankers, a 28% increase since the end of August.

(c)UNIAN 2025