Opec be warned: Russia prepares for oil at $40

Its 65% plunge in 2014, 2015 forced an emergency rate increase and pushed Russia into recession

Perhaps the Bank of Russia knows something the world doesn’t.

As the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies prepare to meet for a review of their production cuts this weekend, the central bank of the world’s biggest energy exporter is hunkering down for years of oil near $40 a barrel.

While analysts in a Bloomberg survey see the price of benchmark Brent crude — which trades at a small premium to Russia’s Urals export blend — rising 16 per cent from current levels by the end of the year, oil’s 10 per cent decline in March alone amid