OREANDA-NEWS. Argus agency reports that the price of Russian Urals oil (CIF port of Rotterdam) on March 30 fell to 13 US dollars per barrel. Urals is sold at a discount, reflecting the cost of North Sea light crude oil. On Monday, the discount was 4.75 dollars, it is a record high since June 2008.

The cost of Urals with delivery to the Mediterranean has fallen in price to 15.25 dollars per barrel, this is the minimum value since June 1999.

Sergey Yezhov, chief economist of Vygon Consulting, points out that a decrease in Urals price to less than 15 dollars per barrel will lead to a sharp decline in oil and gas revenues of Russian budget. Export duties on oil and petroleum products will amount to zero, revenues from mineral extraction tax will decrease to about 240 billion roubles (3.07 billion US dollars), the expert specifies.