Oil rents are back

In 2022, a significant price decline for the Russian Urals oil versus the Brent oil pricing has likely brought and is bringing unexpectedly large benefits for Belarus. In 2022, Belarus purchased oil from Russia at an average price of presumably ≈$69/bbl, while the Brent quotes on the world market were around $100/bbl. As a result, the oil price discount for the Belarusian oil imports versus the Brent pricing could exceed 30%, which was about 9 and 14 percentage points more compared to 2020 and 2021, respectively, and it was close to the average values in 2007-2010 and in 2015–2018.