...Another Record Year: Russian crude output continued to grow in 2015 despite the fall in the oil price, increasing by 1.4% yoy. This was mainly driven by new projects operated by Bashneft (+11.9%) and Gazprom Neft (+2.1%), offsetting the decline reported by Rosneft (-0.8%), Lukoil (-1.1%) and smaller players. This is likely to be followed by stagnation, or even a moderate decline, as new greenfields may not be sufficient to offset falling production from Russia's increasingly depleted brownfields in Western Siberia. Robust Credit Profiles: Weak oil in itself is unlikely to result in massive downgrades. The credit profiles of Russian oil and gas companies remain robust under our revised oil price deck (USD45/bbl in 2016, USD55/bbl in 2017, USD65/bbl in the long term). This is mainly the result of progressive taxation and relative rouble exchange rate flexibility. What to Watch Russia Affirmed `BBB-'/Negative: Russia's `BBB-' rating was affirmed in October 2015. We cap the ratings of Russian...
