MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Currently, Russia's Urals crude benchmark is not traded on stock exchanges, and is mainly priced by market information agencies, such as Platts, based on the Brent-Urals differential.
"If the current price in maintained, which is now $48 [per barrel] for Brent and $45 [per barrel] for Urals, then we will have $42 per barrel by the end of the year," Ulyukayev told the Russian RBC TV channel.
The $42 average price is expected due to the low probability of further reductions in oil prices, the minister added.
"We, along with all the experts, think that a further fall in prices in unlikely. Well, it might, of course, happen temporarily, but it will not continue like that for three years."
Global oversupply and stagnating demand have caused oil prices to plunge from $115 per barrel in June 2014 to less than $30 per barrel in January 2016. Prices recovered amid Nigerian, Canadian and Venezuelan output outages and growing demand in May, reaching a peak of over $50 per barrel in early June. Crude prices are currently fluctuating between $40-50 per barrel.
On Friday, the Brent benchmark rallied almost 3 percent, reaching $46.70 per barrel in afternoon trading. WTI crude rallied 2.6 percent, reaching $44.28 per barrel.
