Important facts on Russia to clarify the misinformationThere's a number of false commentaries put out by oil and BTE short sellers I wish to address.
Russia are expert at Fake News and manipulation. The Presidental Race in the US is a pure example for example.
Facts are, Russia produced 10.875 million barrels per day, at a $20 differentials between $45 and $65 Brent, that's $217.5 million shortfall per day or $80 BILLION DOLLAR shortfall per year. Saudi Arabia is #2 with similar losses when oil is at a Wall Street driven, "buyer's market" price point.
The Russian government expected a deficit of 2.75 trillion rubles ($44.9 billion) this year budgetted on low oil. That was a ploy to get OPEC, Saudi Arabia to take on the brunt of the cuts and it worked.
If you think Russian Oil Oligarchs running the top four Russian, state connection oil companies are dumb enough to allow oil to crash again, you fail to understand how they got to these positions. They aren't dummies. They are masters at the game.
Do the math yourself to fix any minor errors. The financial losses is colassal in not managing the commodity to not only big #1 Russia and big #2 Saudi Arabia but also to all other countries capable of state control of the resources. Venzuela is just an example of what happens in extreme cases because they didn't have the pull Russia and Saudi Arabia has.
Find out who Russia's export markets are. 60% gets exported to the European Community with the rest destined for Asia, India and China. They aren't scare of the US shale, the US is not a big market for them. Put yourself in Russia's shoes, would you really be scared of the US shale when they can't even produce enough to supply their own demand locally? The US has a 100% deficit currently. Russia and Saudi Arabia aren't scared of the US since the US is so far behind the curve the whole situation on this commodity would be comical if it wasn't sad.