The Russian government is implementing a set of measures for long-term stabilization of the domestic market of crude and petroleum products, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said in Vienna on Sunday according to Itar-Tass.
“We continue to develop the infrastructure for diversification of crude and petroleum product exports. In order to limit exports of crude, we encourage enlargement and modernization of refineries inside this country. Tax and customs measures are being applied,” he said.
A shift from selling crude to selling petroleum products “will drastically change the sector,” Sechin said. “This should be a subject of profound debate together with customers.”
“We are working on the growth of the domestic demand for petroleum products and their better quality. For instance, we have just decided to enlarge by 2 million tonnes the fuel supply to farmers,” he said.
“Finally, we have decided to delay the transfer of several new large fields {Trebs and Titov] to oil companies. These fields are located in northwestern areas of the country, which has developed transport infrastructure and is relatively close to our traditional buyers. As for the tax measures encouraging an increase of oil produce, they will mostly be applied to projects, which will start in three or four years,” he said.