The revenues of Russia’s largest oil and natural gas producers dropped by 41% in the first nine months of the year. This was mainly due to a 26% decrease in the average price of Russia’s flagship Urals oil grade, while exports via the network of oil pipeline monopoly Transneft declined by 8% compared with the first nine months of last year.

Last year, the United States, other G7 countries, and Australia imposed a price cap of $60 per barrel on Russian oil. This has led to challenges for Russian oil producers, who have had to redirect their supplies to China and India.

This has also caused issues with payment settlements. According to Reuters, trading activity with India nearly fell apart in July due to disagreements over currency.

As a temporary solution, cargoes were paid for in a combination of Chinese yuan, Hong Kong dollars, and UAE dirham. However, this has not been a sustainable solution, and the head of Russian energy giant Rosneft has criticized the central bank for not setting up a trans-border payments mechanism.

Meanwhile, the bank said, In September, the share of Chinese yuan in payments for all of Russia’s exports increased to 35%, while the rouble share remained significant at 39%.

The bank also noted that changes in destinations, trade flows, and settlement systems have resulted in longer wait times for payments for crude oil and oil products.

Furthermore, the bank mentioned that the domestic FX market experienced a surge in foreign currency liquidity in August due to the rouble’s decline, but liquidity fell in the third quarter.