Proceeds from oil and gas sales for Russia's federal budget fell by about 24% to 8.822 trillion roubles ($99.4 billion) last year, finance ministry data showed on Thursday, following weaker oil prices and reduced gas sales to Europe.
The government, however, has said it expected revenues to recover to 11.5 trillion roubles in 2024 as Russia has managed to redirect oil it used to sell to Europe to China and India.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said last month Europe's share of Russia's crude exports has fallen to only about 4-5% from about 40-45%.
Western sanctions, such as price caps and an embargo on seaborne oil exports, as well as the closure of the Nord Stream gas pipelines to Europe, which were blown up in September 2022, have reduced Russia's energy earnings.
The sanctions have also had the impact of increasing costs for Russian exporters, traders have said.
In December, oil and gas revenues declined to 650.5 billion roubles from 961.7 billion roubles in November, Thursday's finance ministry figures shows.
Reuters expectations for last month's revenues were at 719 billion roubles.
For 2023 as a whole, the Russian government had budgeted for federal revenue of 8.939 trillion roubles from oil and gas sales, or more than 34% of total budget revenue, down from 11.586 trillion roubles in 2022, when oil prices were higher.
($1 = 88.7525 roubles)
