Russia extends gasoline export ban until end of 2026

Russia extended its gasoline export ban until the end of 2026, while the restrictions on diesel exports will be lifted "as the market recovers," Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said July 25.

Once the domestic market is supplied, Russia will need to export diesel fuel to ensure refineries operate at full capacity, Novak was cited by TASS as saying during the Russia-Kazakhstan Interregional Cooperation Forum in Omsk.

The gasoline ban will be extended for all market participants, Novak added. He did not provide details on when the diesel ban could be lifted.

The situation in Russia is gradually stabilizing, though difficulties persist in some regions, according to Novak.

"A number of refineries have returned to operation. The balance is now better, and the situation at stations, including agricultural producers, is significantly better," Novak said in a televised interview with the newspaper Izvestiya.

Several Russian refineries have resumed sales on the St. Petersburg exchange and operations, including Taneco, Taif, Volgograd, Ryazan, Moscow, Omsk, and Norsi, although others, such as Kirishi, Astrakhan, Salavat, and the Samara refinery hub, remain absent as sellers, according to Russia-based market sources.

Novak also said, as broadcast on Yunashev Live Telegram channel, that the decision to allow Euro 3 fuel is temporary and will be implemented until the domestic market is well supplied. Russian refineries will return to producing only Euro 5-spec fuel as soon as they resume operating at full capacity.

Russia's government allowed, in early July, the sale of gasoline and diesel that meet Euro 3 spec rather than Euro 5 as a way to secure additional volumes of motor fuel on the domestic market.

Russia enforced a full ban on gasoline exports from April 1, while the government introduced a ban on diesel from July 9. Both restrictive measures were set to expire at the end of July. Exports of jet fuel are banned until the end of November.

Russia had to implement fuel export bans in response to Ukraine's intensified attacks, which took the country's major refining capacity offline. Fuel shortages led to queues and rationing at stations across the country and the need for Russia to import refined products.

The long-range ship Garnet reached Russia's port of Vitino in the White Sea over June 25-26, marking the first confirmed shipment of Indian fuel to Russia since Indian oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri said at the beginning of July that his country had the capacity to send oil products to Russia, without elaborating on any agreements.

Garnet received its 356,000-barrel cargo of gasoline in a July 7 transshipment near the Egyptian port of Said from the ship Agni, which had loaded the gasoline at India's Vadinar terminal on June 24, according to S&P Global Commodities at Sea data.

Novak said on July 25 that Russia also agreed to import fuel from Kazakhstan, although details of deliveries remain scarce.

"In the current situation, our colleagues and I have agreed that the surplus in Kazakhstan, although small in volume, can be supplied to Russia if necessary," Novak said in an interview televised by Rossiya-1.