In May 2023 the export price of the Russian Urals blend stood at 53.34 dollars per barrel, a decline of 5.3 dollars from April and about 1.5 times higher than the level seen in the same month a year earlier. This figure was reported by the Ministry of Finance and reflects the broader dynamics of energy markets during the period.
Overall, the May 2023 average price for Urals hovered around 53.34 dollars per barrel, marking a 1.48x drop from May 2022 when the price averaged 78.81 dollars per barrel. Despite the dip, Urals crude traded slightly above the ceiling price of 60 dollars per barrel in that period, indicating temporary market dislocations and the interplay between supply constraints and demand recovery observed during the month.
For the January through May 2023 span, the Russian Urals average price was about 51.50 dollars per barrel. This contrasted with the same timeframe in 2022 when the average price reached roughly 83.48 dollars per barrel, underscoring the substantial shift in pricing and export economics within the first half of the year and the evolving balance of energy markets globally.
By the end of May, market observers highlighted that Russia, along with China, Iran, and Iraq, had begun to reshape aspects of the global oil order through a series of energy and security accords. These arrangements reflected a broader alignment in energy strategy and governance that some analysts saw as signaling a move toward new cooperative frameworks in volatile energy markets.
Earlier reporting from a leading financial network noted that Russia had regained much of the revenue lost earlier in the year, with analysts pointing to a recovery in crude export earnings through March and April. The analysis credited a combination of price movements, production discipline by major exporters, and evolving demand patterns in several key economies as factors contributing to the rebound in energy-related revenues during that period.