Ministers from OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies led by Russia, meet on Sunday in Vienna.

The European Commission hopes to introduce a "requirement for attestations to also include itemized ancillary costs, such as insurance and freight," on top of a declaration on the price paid for the Russian oil.

India, the world's third biggest oil importer and consumer, ships over 80% of its oil needs from overseas and wants to cut its crude import bill.

However, there are growing signs of a thaw in relations between the Biden administration and Caracas, with the sides holding talks to explore temporarily lifting sanctions to encourage Venezuela to hold competitive presidential elections next year.

Still, the trade has become a headache for Germany, which has explicitly said it won’t use gas from Russia in the fallout of the war in Ukraine. Berlin is facing sharp criticism over concerns that a government-run company still has ties to Moscow, despite its political rhetoric.

The G7, the European Union and Australia imposed the $60 per barrel cap last December on sea-borne exports of Russian crude in retaliation for Russia’s war on Ukraine.

According to price reporting agency Argus Media, Urals crude topped $60 a barrel on Wednesday, climbing above the cap that the Group of Seven set last year in an attempt to restrict revenue to Moscow’s war machine.

The central bank still expects a current account surplus of $47 billion this year and $38 billion in 2024. On Tuesday, it said in a statement that Russia’s worsening trade balance was caused by a decrease in export volumes as well as the decline in prices mainly for energy exports.

Неопределённость, настигшая мировой энергетический рынок в последние несколько лет, связанная сначала с пандемией коронавируса, а потом и с искусственными ограничениями, наложенными на российские энергоресурсы, в дальнейшем будет лишь увеличиваться

Russia has taken control of other energy assets owned by Western investors since the war started.

Bangladesh is to make its payments to Russia for the Rooppur nuclear power plant construction in Chinese yuan as a result of sanctions stopping payments in US dollars.

Annual inflation in Russia slowed to 3.51% in March 2023 from 10.99% in February, reaching its lowest level since July 2020.

Urals, Russia’s main crude export blend, has traded at a significant discount to the Brent benchmark since the European Union banned almost all seaborne imports of oil and petroleum products from the country, and the Group of Seven industrialized nations imposed a price cap.

Hungary has said it intends to press ahead with its plans for a new Russian-built nuclear power plant at Paks II, despite the Russian war with Ukraine and the European Union (EU) imposition of a range of sanctions against Russia.

Since Turkey can legitimately still import diesel-type fuel from Russia, traders can potentially bring in relatively cheap barrels to meet the country’s energy needs. At the same time, Turkey’s own production could be sold at a higher price to the EU.