By Darya Korsunskaya
Feb 3 (Reuters) - Russia's monthly budget revenues from
oil and gas fell in January to their lowest level since August
2020 under the impact of Western sanctions on Russian exports,
Finance Ministry data showed on Friday.
Monthly tax and customs revenue from energy sales was down
46% in the space of a year - reflecting the fact that, while the
price of the global benchmark Brent blend was little
changed, the average monthly price of Russia's Urals blend was down 42%, according to the ministry.
Moscow relies on its multibillion-dollar earnings from oil
and gas sales to fund its budget spending, and has been forced
to start selling down some international reserves to cover the
shortfall.
The data also showed budget income from energy had dropped
54% from December's earnings of 931.5 billion roubles ($13.2
billion), though these were inflated by a one-off tax payment by
monopoly gas exporter Gazprom .
January's figure stood at 425.5 billion roubles ($6.05
billion).
The finance ministry on Friday said it would almost treble
its daily sales of foreign currency to 8.9 billion roubles ($130
million) a day over the next month to compensate for the fall in
oil and gas revenues.
The West - previously Russia's most lucrative energy market
- has responded to Russia's invasion of Ukraine by targeting its
energy revenues through an unprecedented package of sanctions
that is set to tighten further.
Brussels hopes its restrictions will cut off 90% of Russia's
oil exports to the European Union, and member states have cut
the share of Russian gas in their import mix from more than 40%
to under 15% since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The international restrictions, including a $60 a barrel
price cap imposed by the Group of Seven major powers, have meant
that Russia's Urals blend - which previously traded at a similar
price to Brent - now sells at a heavy discount.
The average price in January was $49.48 a barrel, the
finance ministry said, down 42% on January 2022.
On Friday, Brent was trading at around $82, and Urals at
around $53.60.
The Russian government earned 11.6 trillion roubles ($165
billion) on oil and gas sales last year, the finance ministry
said.
($1 = 70.31 roubles)
(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya; Additional reporting and
writing by Jake Cordell)
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