Russia will impose a six-month ban on gasoline exports starting March 1 to meet rising domestic demand, the RBC news outlet reported Tuesday, citing two government sources and a representative of Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak.
Novak was said to have told Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in a letter last month that demand for fuel will grow because of summer vacation travel, spring fieldwork on farms and planned repairs at oil refineries.
“In order to offset the booming demand for petroleum products, measures are needed to help stabilize domestic prices,” an internal letter Novak sent to Mishustin was quoted as saying by RBC.
A representative for the Deputy Prime Minister confirmed to RBC the government’s decision to introduce a six-month gasoline export ban.
Russia previously imposed “temporary restrictions” on gasoline and diesel exports between September and November to tackle surging prices.
Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were exempt from the export ban as members of the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union.
The latest ban exempts the same countries, as well as Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Georgia’s separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which Russia recognizes as independent states.
Last year, Russia ramped up gasoline exports to new buyers after the United States, the EU and G7 countries banned Russian oil products over the invasion of Ukraine.
