Russian oil took a staggering £3 billion hit in the first three months of 2025 as the country’s most vital export is hammered. A combination of sanctions, slowing global demand, and internal financial decline continue to hit the Russian oil industry.
From January to March this year, the industry reported a loss of $4 billion (£2.9 billion) compared to a $4 billion profit last year, according to the Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security of Ukraine. One of Russia’s most significant oil giants, Surgutneftegas, saw its worst result in decades, reporting a 264% loss in net profit compared to the first quarter of 2024. At the end of 2023, the firm reportedly held 5.9 trillion rubles (£55 billion) in liquid assets, but some Russian analysts said it could have been as high as 6.5 trillion rubles (£51 billion).
Another one of the country’s biggest oil companies, Gazpromneft, suffered profit losses of 158%.
In the first quarter of 2025, it lost 21.3 billion rubles (£200 million) compared to a profit of 36.9 billion rubles (£347 million) a year ago. This comes amid a 5% drop in revenue and a 6.8% increase in production costs.
Just days ago, Russian exports of crude oil hit a two year low. Data showed fossil fuel sales accounted for an astonishing 30% of state income and to help pay for the war in Ukraine.
According to the latest financial figures, four-week average flows dropped by 170,000 barrels a day to 3.24 million, bringing export values down 4% to £844m per week.
Kyrylo Shevchenko, a former head of Ukraine’s National Bank, said: “Despite OPEC+ output hike, Moscow’s focus on price over volume signals production struggles.”
Bloomberg also reported that tankers loaded 5.6 million fewer barrels of Russian crude in the seven days leading up to June 1 than they had done the previous week.
Lieutenant Colonel Joby Rimmer told a meeting of the OSCE in Vienna last week that the Kremlin had lost a staggering £330 billion in energy revenues due to sanctions.
He noted that defence spending had ballooned to £109 billion and now made up 40% of the Russian government’s spending in 2025.
