Russia will reduce oil export duty to $110 per tonne starting April 1, 2009, Alexander Sakovich, a deputy head of the Russian Finance Ministry's customs payments department, told Interfax.
Since March 1, 2009, the oil export duty has been $115.3 per tonne.
The export duty rate to take effect on April 1 has been calculated based on the results of monitoring average prices for Russian oil on international markets, which was $42.03544 per barrel from February 15 to March 14, Sakovich said.
Export duty on light oil products will be $86.4 per tonne and that on black oil products $46.5 per tonne starting April 1. Since March 1, 2009, they have been $90 and $48.5 respectively, Sakovich said.
Export duties on crude oil soared to an all-time high of $495.9 per tonne in August and September 2008. Since then, against the background of a drop in oil prices apparently spurred by the global financial crisis and looming recession, the Russian government decided to monitor oil prices on a monthly rather than on a bimonthly basis so as not to further worsen performance of oil companies by export duty rates inadequate to the actual market situation.