If you open the tap in your kitchen, a glass of water will be filled from it in about 5 seconds. With such speed you will be able to gain about 150 liters of water in an hour, i.e., about 1 barrel (a barrel is 159 liters):
If the tap in your kitchen is opened for 1 year, 8,700 barrels of water will flow out of it. It will take you 18,500 years to gain 162 million barrels from your tap.
In such a volume the titanic could bathe like a baby in a bath.
If after such comparisons you roughly understand what 162 million barrels is, now I am ready to inform that this is the amount of oil sold by Russia in April 2020 (precisely sold, and production was even more).
At the same time, earlier this year, when there were no oil wars and pandemics, when no one violated OPEC+ deals or made new ones… When Russia was not called the “loser in the oil war”, ceding its markets…
In general, in those blessed times Russia sold just over 150 million barrels. I.e., about 5% less than now:
Yes, the money is less, because oil has devalued greatly. But, as I have already written, not only the price, but also the volume of sales is important in this case. More precisely, sales markets.
“Russian Urals oil breaks records for exports to China
Exports of Russian Urals oil to China in the first quarter of this year amounted to a record 4 million tons, and in April another 2.1 million tons this was added to this figure. Such data was provided by TASS with reference to an independent pricing agency…”
Now, as it is not difficult to guess, there is a global shift in the world, a shift of markets. And in just one month, Russia has expanded its markets by 5% [+9 million barrels per month – ed]. And this is despite the fact that oil consumption as a whole has decreased.
Moreover, Russian oil (Urals variety) used to be cheaper than American oil (WTI), European oil (Brent), and Arabic oil (Dubai). Now Russian oil has simply soared relative to all other varieties. It has already visibly bypassed the American WTI and periodically overtakes even the European Brent.
Thus, so far, people who are not particularly aware look only at papers (OPEC treaty), but in real life Russia benefits from the oil war. Because in fact, only its oil grows in price (relative to others) and expands the market monthly. Exports are also scheduled to increase in May.
The pandemic will pass, demand will recover, prices will rise. And it will be a completely different oil world… With a different balance of power and markets.
You may ask “What is the use of all this for ordinary citizens of Russia?”. I will be sure to tell you about this in future articles.
Obyasnyayu na paltsakh (Zen Yandex)
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