Russian govt will strive to reduce discount on Russian oil to around $10 per barrel - deputy PM

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - The Russian government will strive to reduce the discount on Russian oil to around $10 per barrel, which was the case "in the best of times under sanctions," Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said during an open meeting at the Sirius educational center.

"In the best of times, I mean already in the period of sanctions, our discount on oil was at around $10 per barrel. And we will strive to bring this figure down to approximately that level. We are working in this direction," he said.

After Rosneft and Lukoil were included in the U.S. and UK sanctions lists last autumn, as well as agreements between the U.S. and India, which after 2022 became one of the main buyers of Russian oil, to reduce its purchases, the discount on Russian oil at loading ports reached $27-$29 per barrel according to Argus data.