IMF - A cyclical recovery in Russia is gaining pace after a two-year recession, with growth expected to reach around 2 percent this year, supported by higher oil prices and easier domestic financial conditions. Nevertheless, growth is likely to remain low in the medium-term, due to demographics, unaddressed structural bottlenecks as well as enduring sanctions.

FT - The original deal with Opec’s de facto leader Saudi Arabia, brokered by Mr Novak and Russian president Vladimir Putin, reduced oil production from participating countries by 1.8m barrels a day and helped push the price of benchmark Brent Crude above $60 a barrel this week for the first time in more than two years.

FT - Russia has come to the aid of Venezuela with a deal to restructure $3.15bn of sovereign debt, allowing Caracas to meet obligations to other creditors and underlining Moscow’s role as the crisis-hit country’s main foreign backer.

Product exports have grown significantly over the past several years and are expected to continue to grow as Russian refineries add capacity to produce more high-quality products.

The Russian economy is recovering from a full-blown crisis caused by a massive drop in prices for oil, its key export, and by economic sanctions imposed by the West over Moscow’s role in the Ukraine crisis.

Average growth across the EBRD region is seen at 3.3 per cent this year, a rise of 0.9 percentage points against the previous forecast from May, and compared with growth of just 1.9 per cent in 2016. The economy in Russia, the largest in the EBRD region and a major influence on output in many other EBRD countries of operations, has now pulled out of recession after a cumulative contraction of 3 per cent over the last two years. Russia is expected to see GDP growth of 1.8 and 1.7 per cent in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

The step to restructure debt comes as Venezuela stands to receive more revenue for its oil. The country’s crude oil basket price rose to CNY350.75 ($52.90) a barrel Friday, the highest since July 2015. And Venezuela did approve a $1.1 billion principal payment on a PDVSA bond on Thursday.

Russia’s readiness to back an extension of the supply cuts agreement between Opec and its allies until the end of 2018 has prompted oil ministers to seek widespread support for the proposal, Opec’s secretary-general said on Thursday.

The share of Rosneft Group Subsidiaries in PSA will be 80%, the amount of payments for the projects farm-in and geological information for each of five blocks ranges from 40 mln. USD to 110 mln. USD and may total to 400 mln.USD.

From January 1 through October 15, 2017, Gazprom had supplied Austria with 6.4 billion cubic meters of gas, up 48.3 per cent or 2.1 billion cubic meters of gas versus the same period in 2016. Moreover, on October 4, 2017, the amount of gas delivered by Gazprom to Austria since the start of 2017 exceeded the full-year total for 2016 (6.13 and 6.1 billion cubic meters, respectively).