Russia announced it was temporarily stopping exports of petrol and diesel to all but four countries in the world. This is claimed to be done by the red bear country to stabilize the market.
Reporting from Reuters, Saturday (23/9/2023), Russia announced that the ban would take effect in the shortest possible time. However, it turns out that there are four countries that escaped Russia's decision. The four are Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.
They are members of the Eurasian Economic Union led by Russia. "The temporary ban is expected to saturate the fuel market, which will ultimately have the effect of reducing prices for consumers," Russia said in its official statement.
Additionally, Russia's energy ministry said the move would prevent illegal fuel exports. In recent times, the Russian fuel market has been hit by various factors. These include oil refinery maintenance, railway congestion and the weak ruble exchange rate as incentives for fuel exports.
Therefore, Russia's First Deputy Minister of Energy, Pavel Sorokin, said that his party had not yet determined a time limit for stopping fuel exports. He explained that Russia would take further action considering the energy market situation.
"We expect the market to feel the impact quite quickly. But that will depend on market saturation and the results," Sorokin said.
In the first 20 days of September 2023, Russia is reported to have reduced exports of oil, diesel and gas by around 30 percent or 1.7 metric tons. Meanwhile, in 2022, Russia is recorded to have exported 4.812 million tons of gasoline and around 35 million tons of diesel.