Oil companies pay into Russian budget under fuel damper for first time in five years in Feb, totaling 18.8 bln rubles

MOSCOW. March 5 (Interfax) - Oil companies paid 18.8 billion rubles to the treasury under the fuel damper in February, according to materials on the formation and use of additional oil and gas revenues of the federal budget posted on the Finance Ministry's website.

In accordance with tax legislation, calculations under the damper are carried out for the preceding month, meaning that payments for January were fulfilled in February.

The last time oil companies paid and did not receive the damper from the budget was in February 2021, when companies transferred 2.8 billion rubles to the treasury.

The fuel damper became negative for oil companies amid changes in the market and economic conditions. For December, with payments rendered in January, companies were supposed to pay around 13 billion rubles into the Russian budget, but instead received 16.9 billion rubles in damper payments from the budget. This situation arose due to the recalculation of the damper for gasoline for September 2025. For these payments, amendments were made to the Tax Code in the autumn.

According to the Petromarket research group, oil companies will also be forced to pay a damper of around 7 billion rubles to the budget for February, with payments rendered in March and the announcement in early April. The damper should be entirely for gasoline, while oil companies could expect smaller payments from the government for diesel, according Petromarket's calculations.

Russia's Energy Ministry and Finance Ministry are continuing discussions on adjusting the fuel price damper, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters at the end of February. Oil companies had previously proposed that the authorities reinstate the maximum discount on Russian oil, the special coefficient (VSPR), in the calculation of fuel export prices.

The damper mechanism has been in effect in Russia since 2019. The budget pays the damper as a subsidy to oil companies to help restrain domestic fuel prices amid high export netbacks. If the difference between the export price for fuel and the indicative domestic price as specified by law is positive, meaning exports become more profitable than domestic sales, then the government pays the oil companies. If the difference is negative, then oil companies pay into the budget.