The average price of Urals crude was $61.30 per barrel in January-November, while the country's 2007 budget is based on a price of $61 per barrel. U.S. crude lost $0.01 Tuesday to settle at $62.43, and London's Brent crude lost $0.13 to stop at $63.32.
"Fluctuations are possible, but I see no reason for it [the price] to fall below $45 per barrel," German Gref said at a meeting with Latin American ambassadors.
He said if the price exceeds the $60 mark, it will be suppressed by "economic restrictions."
"A price of $60-70 is an extreme, and it is unlikely to be surpassed," the minister said. "But life is richer than any schemes."
Gref said Russia would use its energy resources to cover the world's needs. Russia is the world's second largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia. It supplies 25% of Europe's needs.
"It is not because we are such philanthropists, but because it is profitable to us," he said, adding that Russia must above all use its oil revenues to modernize and diversify its economy.
"Macroeconomic parameters today are no longer dominant," he said, adding that the country had reached macroeconomic stability.
