Novak urged oil companies to give priority to the domestic market

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak called on Russian oil companies to respect the priority of gasoline supplies to the domestic market. He stated this during a meeting on the situation on the oil products market with the participation of specialized companies and government agencies.

“The Deputy Prime Minister instructed the oil companies to respect the priority of gasoline supplies to the domestic market, even in a situation where export seems more profitable, without extracting momentary benefits to the detriment of Russian fuel consumers,” said in a government announcement. Novak also instructed to work out quotas for the export of petroleum products.

Along with this, the Ministry of Energy and the Federal Antimonopoly Service will have to take measures to prevent the “gray” export of petroleum products. After this work, they are instructed to submit a report to the government.

In June FAS urged oil companies to increase sales of gasoline on the stock exchange, as a decrease of 7.9% was recorded over the past five months. Novak supported the proposal to increase the maximum volume to 13% of production.

In mid-June, wholesale gasoline prices, which had been rising since April, reached a new all-time high. At the same time, the volume of oil refining grew in January-April by 3.2% yoy to 93.76 million tons. On June 14, Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov said that refining had increased by about 4.6% since the beginning of the year.

On June 28, the Ministry of Energy reported that the increase in wholesale prices for gasoline will not have a significant impact on the cost of fuel at gas stations. The agency explained that the increase in gasoline prices in May-June is associated with the first wave of planned repairs at the refinery, but production is already gradually stabilizing as these works are completed.