OREANDA-NEWS. December 12, 2008. Russia's international reserves amounted to US455.73bn as of December 1, having fallen 5.95 percent from US484.59bn as of November 1, the Bank of Russia reported, reported the press-centre of Roseurobank.

Specifically, foreign exchange reserves stood at US 404.563bn as of December 1. Russia's reserve position in the International Monetary Fund reached US 1.018bn, and special drawing rights (SDRs) amounted to US 1m. Gold included in the international reserves stood at US13.339bn, while other international reserve assets totaled US 36.81bn.

The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service and the Federal Financial Markets Service (FFMS) have agreed that the former service will be entitled to issue requirements for companies planning to sell their products on stock exchanges, deputy head of the antitrust regulator Andrei Kashevarov told journalists today. He explained that the anti-monopoly service would control sales volumes and the initial price, while the FFMS would issue regulations preventing companies from setting monopoly prices. The FFMS will work out a special set of rules for each particular commodity market, being sure to take their peculiarities into account, Kashevarov noted.

Gazprom's executive board has approved an investment program worth RUB 920.44bn (approx. USD 32.92bn) for 2009, the Russian gas monopoly said in a statement today. Specifically, Gazprom's capital investment is to amount to RUB 699.88bn (approx. USD 25.03bn), and long-term financial investment to RUB 220.56bn (approx. USD 7.89bn). According to the draft program for cost optimization for 2009, also approved by the board, the effect from the program's implementation is expected to reach RUB 11.3bn (approx. USD 404m).

While drafting the investment program for next year, Gazprom took into account the list of priority projects prepared as part of the company's 10-year development program and requests by federal authorities regarding the terms of strategic projects. In accordance with those requests, Gazprom is to ensure natural gas supplies to the Kamchatka Peninsula in 2010 and to Vladivostok in 2011.

In January-October 2008, Russia decreased its oil exports by 7.44 percent to 184.543m tonnes compared to the same period a year earlier, Russia's Federal Customs Service reported. Meanwhile, oil export revenues rose 51.2 percent to US 136.7bn. Oil exports to countries outside the CIS and the Baltic states dropped almost 8 percent to 170.2m tonnes, while revenues grew 50.8 percent to US 128.26bn. Exports to the CIS inched down 0.11 percent to just shy of 14.38m tonnes of oil, while revenues jumped 57.1 percent to over US 8.443bn.

As reported earlier, Russia's oil output reached 491m tonnes in 2007. The Russian Energy Ministry has projected that oil production will decline by 1m tonnes in 2008 to 490m tonnes. According to the Russian Federal State Statistics Service, Russia produced 406m tonnes of oil and gas condensate from January to October 2008, a 0.6 percent fall from the same period a year earlier.

Russia's natural gas exports grew 9.1 percent to 147.5bn cubic meters between January and October 2008 against the same period of the previous year, the Federal Customs Service reported today. Similarly, Russia's revenue from gas exports jumped 69.2 percent to US 55.02bn. Exports to countries outside the CIS rose 10.8 percent to 134.1bn cubic meters, whereas exports to the CIS shrank 5.6 percent to US 13.4bn cubic meters.

As reported earlier, Russia's gas production increased 1.4 percent to 540bn cubic meters, according to the data from the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat).

The Energy Ministry will submit Russia's energy development strategy until 2030 to the government in December, Vitaly Bushuyev, the ministry's representative and the Energy Strategy Institute's general director, said during the Russian Oil and Gas Congress today. He noted that the government would probably approve the strategy in the first quarter of 2009, although its final adoption could be postponed in light of the global economic crisis. According to the strategy, investments in the energy industry are to total US 1.87 trillion by 2030.

Bushuyev also stated that the parameters of the strategy had been determined on the basis of energy prices from early 2008, before the beginning of the global crisis. He elaborated, however, that there was no need to make amendments to the strategy in light of the crisis, as Russia had always developed according to its own scenario, regardless of changes on global markets.

Russia’s international reserves stood at US 455.73 billion as of December 1, down 5.95 percent from US 484.59 billion a month before, the Central Bank of Russia reported.

Foreign currency reserves reached US 404.563 billion; the reserve position in the International Monetary Fund amounted to US 1.018 billon; special drawing rights stood at US 1 million; gold reserves were estimated at US 13.339 billion; and other international reserves were reported at US 36.810 billion. Gold and foreign currency reserves are highly liquid financial assets controlled by the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry. They consist of foreign currency assets, monetary gold, special drawing rights, the reserve position in the International Monetary Fund, and other reserve assets.

The ruble’s real effective exchange rate rose 8 percent from January to November 2008, according to the Central Bank. It edged down 0.8 percent against the U.S. dollar and climbed 13.2 percent against the euro. The ruble’s nominal effective exchange rate was up 0.8 percent. Russia’s inflation stood at 0.8 percent in November, reaching 12.5 percent from January to November, the Federal State Statistics Service reported. In November 2007, inflation was 1.2 percent, and 10.6 percent from January to November 2007.