MOSCOW, October 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russia may lower oil export duty on its benchmark Urals blend from $240.7 per metric ton to $229-231 from November 1, following trends on global oil markets, a Finance Ministry official said on Monday.
Alexander Sakovich, head of the ministry's consolidated analysis department, said the average price of Russian oil equaled $67.05 per barrel from September 15 to October 11.
"If oil prices stay within the range of $67-71 per barrel in the remaining three trading days, the final monitoring price for the period from September 15 to October 14 will be $67.04-67.59 per barrel," Sakovich said.
Therefore, under the formula of oil export duty calculation, the export oil duty may equal $229-231 per metric ton from November 1. In this case, the duty on light petroleum products will drop to $166-168 per ton from the current $174.5 per ton, and the duty on heavy petroleum products to about $90 per metric ton from the current $94 per metric ton, he said.
Since March 1, when global oil prices stabilized at $43 per barrel, the export duty on Russian oil rose to $115.3 per metric ton for the first time in the first four months of the year. In April it fell to $110 per metric ton. In the subsequent months, the Russian oil export duty was seen to increase again, following a rally on global oil markets.
Last year, the government abandoned its previously accepted bimonthly adjustments of export duties, and from December 1 switched to setting duties for oil and oil products on a monthly basis to respond more swiftly to changes in world oil prices. The duty is set by a formula based on the price of the Russian benchmark Urals blend.
