Parameters of Russian fuel damper will not be changed in Aug - sources

MOSCOW. Sept 25 (Interfax) - The parameters of the fuel damper will not be changed retroactively from August 1, as previously discussed by regulators, several sources familiar with the situation told Interfax.

Oil companies will therefore not receive payments from the budget, since the average exchange price for 92-octane gasoline according to the territorial index of the European part of Russia, which is used in the damper formula, amounted to 69,340 rubles per tonne in August, which is much higher than the current threshold of 66,495 rubles per tonne.

However, oil companies will receive damper payments for diesel fuel, as exchange prices for it did not exceed the maximum values.

So far, in the use of the fuel damper, a precedent for reducing payments to zero has occurred only once - during the peak of the price crisis in 2023. At that time, companies did not receive the fuel damper from the budget for September, because the average exchange prices for both gasoline and diesel fuel that month were much higher than the threshold.

Following this, the damper calculations for gasoline and diesel fuel were separated at the request of oil companies, and a maximum level of excess over exchange prices was set for each type of fuel.

At the end of August, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak instructed the relevant agencies to submit calculations for changing the fuel damper retroactively (from August 1) by September 10. Today, he said that the price deviation indicator for zeroing out the fuel damper will be increased by 10 percentage points from September, without specifying whether the price indicator in the fuel damper will be increased by 5 percentage points retroactively from August, as had been discussed earlier.