Russia has an interest in international oil prices remaining high but would not want them to reach extreme levels as this could have a negative effect similar to that seen in 2008, Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday in a press briefing.
"Russia is interested in oil prices being high, but not too high," Medvedev said, noting that the march to a record-high oil price of over $147/barrel in 2008 contributed to the global economic crisis.
Talking about the recent rise in gasoline prices on the domestic market, he said this mainly reflected the current upward trend in oil prices on international markets.
But he also said that collusion between oil companies on the domestic market was to blame for the rapid rise in Russian gasoline prices and said tough action would be taken to stop such practices.
The introduction of steeper export duty for gasoline, making exports less attractive, is one way of addressing the problem of high gasoline prices, Medvedev said in the press briefing, the first he has held outside of Moscow.
At the end of April, Russia revised its gasoline export duty for May to $408.30/mt, 34% higher than the previously expected $304/mt.
The government is considering implementing an increased export duty in June as well. If so, the export duty is likely to rise to $415.80/mt, compared with the regular export duty for light products, which is likely to be set at $309.6/mt for June.
Unlike gasoil and fuel oil, gasoline exports represent only a small percentage of the overall production, with sources estimating around 10% of Russia's gasoline production is exported.
As part of further measures to resolve the tight domestic gasoline market, the Russian government is also considering increasing the export duty for fuel oil used in the production of high-octane gasoline, including vacuum gasoil and naphtha.
Russia exports around 78 million mt/year fuel oil, which is widely used as a feedstock by European refineries.
