Russian regulators seeking to ban gasoline exports for producers, oil companies advocate changing damper parameters
MOSCOW. June 25 (Interfax) - Russian fuel market participants are discussing the issue of banning gasoline exports for producers through October this year, inclusive, several sources in the market told Interfax.
One of the sources has said that the issue was raised at a meeting of the Federal Anti-monopoly Service (FAS) Exchange Committee regarding a complete ban on gasoline exports until October 2025, inclusive, particularly for vertically integrated oil companies.
Interfax has sent a request to the FAS.
One of the industry representatives noted in a conversation with Interfax that one of the reasons for the current situation on the market is that many companies conduct maintenance in September.
The sources have said that the Energy Ministry raised the issue of a sharp increase in exchange prices with oil companies at the end of last week, following which prices dipped slightly, though they are currently at an overall high level, and sales volumes on the exchange have fallen.
Meantime, analysts note that demand for filling stations has begun to grow, thus oil companies are forced to supply more fuel to their respective filling stations, while cutting supplies to the exchange.
One of Interfax's sources noted that the FAS would present proposals on the fuel market to Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak.
One of the sources noted that oil companies are proposing to alter the price cap range after which damping payments are zeroed out as an alternative to the export ban. The source has said that prices could exceed the established cap closer to the end of summer-beginning of autumn. The matter of increasing the cap level after which oil companies cease receiving damping payments from the budget was voiced last year, though has not yet been resolved by Novak.
Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Sazanov the end of May said that the rise in the threshold of deviation from the indicators in the fuel damper would be in two stages.
"I think that it would be in two stages. First, it would be 15% for gasoline and 25% for diesel for some period, then 20% for gasoline and 30% for diesel. It is necessary to determine the time interval during which the transitional first stage would be in effect. We are currently discussing this," Sazanov said.
The current Tax Code stipulates that if wholesale fuel prices in Russia rise too sharply and deviate from the established indicative prices (60,450 rubles per tonne for gasoline and 57,200 rubles per tonne for diesel in 2025) on average per month by more than 10% for gasoline and 20% for diesel, then the damper is not paid for that month.
Specifically, oil producers would cease receiving the damper if the average monthly price is 66,495 rubles per tonne for gasoline and 68,640 rubles per tonne for diesel. The average price on the exchange has been 60,952 rubles per tonne for gasoline and 58,227 rubles per tonne for diesel in June, according to Interfax calculations.
There has been only one precedent in practice to date with zeroing out the fuel damper, and this occurred at the height of the price crisis of 2023, when companies did not receive a fuel damper from the budget for September, as the average exchange prices for both gasoline and diesel that month were considerably higher than the cap.
Following this precedent, oil companies repeatedly asked to separate the damper calculations for gasoline and diesel, set the excess of price caps separately by fuel types, and expand the deviations from the indicative prices for each petroleum product. The caps were divided by fuel type last year.
Exchange prices for gasoline began rising sharply at the start of summer, reaching their highest levels since the beginning of the year. During the first part of June, AI-92 gasoline prices on the SPB Exchange increased nearly 11% to 63,624 rubles per tonne, while AI-95 rose 10% to 66,598 rubles per tonne.
Novak at the end of May reported that the Energy Ministry had proposed extending the ban on gasoline exports for non-producers, which is in effect until the end of August, to September-October.
"All members of the main office support it. The Energy Ministry will now make these proposals. I think the government will consider them and, probably, there will not be any particular objections," Novak said at the time.
