The Russian government is considering the possibility of relaxing environmental fuel standards in the event of a possible shortage.
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This was reported by Reuters, citing three industry sources.
Since 2016, Russia has had a ban on the sale of gasoline below the Euro-5 environmental class. According to the publication’s interlocutors, the Ministry of Energy is considering the option of reducing the content of some additives and ethanol in gasoline in order to create the basis for additional production. The sulfur content will remain unchanged, they say.
This measure, Reuters sources say, will help increase gasoline production at outdated oil refineries. The main part of the production of low-grade gasoline in Russia, the publication notes, is accounted for by the Orsk Oil Refinery and the Angarsk Plant in Eastern Siberia, which were stopped due to flooding in the Orenburg region.
According to the calculations of the publication’s interlocutors, easing the standards could bring the domestic market an additional 10%, or from 300 to 350 thousand tons of gasoline per month, which will be enough to satisfy growing seasonal demand.
In 2023, the total volume of gasoline production in Russia reached almost 44 million tons. In the first quarter of 2024, it was 11.1 million tons, writes Reuters. According to the publication, by the end of March, attacks by Ukrainian drones led to a reduction in Russian initial oil refining capacity by approximately 14%.
The Russian Ministry of Energy did not respond to a request for comment.
Since the beginning of the year, Russian oil refineries have been regularly attacked by Ukrainian drones. In March, two primary oil refining units were damaged at Rosneft’s Ryazan oil refinery, and the Novoshakhtinsky oil refinery in the Rostov region was shut down after downed drones fell on its territory. A primary processing unit at the Nizhny Novgorod refinery of LUKoil was damaged by a drone attack, and on March 16, drones attacked a refinery in the Samara region.
From March 1, 2024, the Russian government banned the export of gasoline for six months.
In early April, Reuters, citing sources, wrote that Russia asked Kazakhstan to create an emergency reserve of 100 thousand tons of gasoline for delivery in case of its shortage due to attacks by Ukrainian drones. Also, according to Reuters, Russia sharply increased purchases of gasoline from Belarus in March.
Source: Racurs
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