Russia to stop petrol exports

Russia may stop petrol exports from April 1. It has been instructed to prepare a draft decision in this regard. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak gave this instruction to the Energy Ministry on Friday (March 27). State news agency TASS reported that the ban could be in effect until July 31.
Novak said that the crisis in the Middle East has caused major instability in the global energy market, causing oil prices to fluctuate. He added that Russia’s demand for fuel abroad is still very high. However, the main goal now is to maintain domestic supplies.
The Russian government said that the country now has the same number of oil refineries as last year. Therefore, it will be possible to maintain normal fuel supplies within the country. Last year, some regions of Russia experienced petrol shortages. Some oil refineries were damaged in the Ukrainian attack. At that time, fuel demand also increased.
For this reason, Russia has stopped petrol and diesel exports several times in the past to control fuel prices. Last year, Russia exported about 5 million tons of gasoline. An average of about 117,000 barrels of gasoline were exported daily.