Energy Minister of the Russian Federation retains the forecast for oil prices in 2016 in the range of $ 40-50 per barrel, Alexander Novak said after talks with Minister of Communications and Information Technology of Iran, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Russian-Iranian commission, Mahmoud Vaezi.

"The forecasts we made that oil will be between 40 and 50$ per barrel correspond to reality," - he said.

Novak added that the outlook for the balancing of the market has not changed - the middle of 2017.

Today, the cost of the futures on Brent crude for delivery in September 2016 on the ICE exchange in London fell 2% compared to the closing level, to 41.86 dollars per barrel. Thus, oil prices fell below 42 dollars for the first time since April 18.