[Vespers War]

Another possibility is the 1990-91 Gulf War being more severe, leading to oil price increases that benefit the Soviet extraction economy. Prices jumped from $17/barrel in early July of 1990 to $46/barrel in mid-October, declining back to $20/barrel by the end of January 1991 as Operation Desert Storm exceeded international expectations. If Hussein had been more active/vindictive and pummeled oil-producing areas of the OPEC members who opposed his invasion of Kuwait, the ensuing shortage and consequent price spikes would have been a major boost to the Soviet economy, which in our timeline produced somewhat over 10 million barrels per day in 1991, down from a peak of 11.4 million barrels per day in 1988.

The USSR's domestic consumption was around 250 million barrels per year, with around 150 million barrels exported. A price spike to $50/barrel based on destruction of other oil assets, compared to the actual price in 1991, would have generated $4.5 billion of "extra" revenue for the USSR. If they were able to increase production to the 500-550 million barrels of the late 1980s, they could generate $7.5-9 billion of export-based revenue.