The government most likely will not have time until October to lift the moratorium on foreign supplies of fuel, which was imposed in June to protect the domestic market. As it became known “Kommersant”, against an early lifting of restrictions is the Ministry of Finance. There is fear of reducing the processing and, as a consequence, tax revenues because of the emergence of cheap foreign fuel, mainly Belarusian. Experts, however, doubt that the delivery of imported fuel will have a significant impact on Russian oil refining.A ban on the import of fuel in Russia, which is valid until October 1, most likely, will not be removed ahead of schedule, as proposed by the energy Ministry, told Kommersant’s sources in the industry. In late July, the Ministry has prepared for public debate the draft resolution on the lifting of restrictions. But the Ministry of Finance, explain the interlocutors of “Kommersant”, was against.The Ministry of fear that the imported fuel, especially from Belarus, will replace Russian goods in the domestic market. This can lead to reduction of oil refining inside the country and, as consequence, to reduction of tax revenues to the damper, since imported fuel damper is not charged, pass the sources of “Kommersant”, the Ministry’s position. Meanwhile, in conditions of low oil prices, the damper has already become a very significant source of replenishment of the budget: according to the Reuters, the oil company will pay according to this mechanism, 36 billion rubles. in July and 273 billion rubles in seven months.Although the negative position of the Ministry of Finance is formally not an insurmountable barrier, it means increase in terms of project approval. In practice, most likely, October 1, and automatic lifting of the import ban will come faster than officials agree on early cancellation and conduct the solution through all the procedures of the Eurasian economic Commission, said the source “Kommersant”. The energy Ministry and the Ministry of Finance requests are not answered.The idea of a moratorium on the import of fuel appeared in April in the period of sharp decline in demand due to the pandemic. The ban was intended to protect the Russian market from the cheaper supply of fuels, mainly from Belarus: foreign fuel has become cheaper because amid fallen oil prices, he was not paid a damper.However, due to a series of approvals moratorium has started to operate only from June — at a time when demand again increased dramatically due to the cancellation of a significant part of the constraints associated with a coronavirus. At the same time, production at LUKOIL’s Russian refineries, which was on routine repairs and reduced processing during the quarantine, have not had time to recover, which caused the growth of prices on the stock exchange. In late June, the price of AI-95 reached a record 59 thousand rubles per ton, while the price of AI-92 in late July, reached a peak c 2018 at 51.5 thousand rubles per ton.A lack of fuel and the subsequent R��St prices repeatedly complained to the owners of the independent gas stations. In their opinion, should return the ability to import fuel, and to increase mandatory regulations for oil companies selling fuel on the exchange. In the last paragraph of the energy Ministry and the FAS went to the market to meet. At the same time the Minister urged oil companies to increase fuel production.For oil companies, despite raised the wholesale prices, in many cases, refining is less profitable than its exports. However, according to CDU TEK, in the first two weeks of July shipments to the domestic market was comparable to the level of last year, and in the second half of the month exceeded them. As a result, prices for gasoline on the SPIMEX stabilized: August 6, AI-92 has fallen in price on 1,5%, to 49.3 thousand RUB per ton, AI-95 — on 2%, to 50.9 thousand rubles per ton.Gasoline production in Belarus is about 10% of production in Russia, in this regard, the delivery of which would not have a significant effect on processing in Russia, said Anton Usov from KPMG. In his opinion, the supplies could be of the order of 40 thousand tons per month, the same amount was imported in Russia in April. For comparison: in July, Russian refineries produced 3.55 mln tons of gasoline.Dmitry Kozlov
