Russia could re-impose gasoline export ban as prices rise - sources
MOSCOW. March 25 (Interfax) - The Russian authorities are discussing re-imposing the ban on gasoline exports for producers, sources with knowledge of the situation told Interfax.
A gasoline and diesel export ban for non-producers is in place until July 31, 2026.
Russia needs to act as soon as possible to provide the domestic market with fuel amid the global energy crisis, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said during an Energy Ministry board meeting on Wednesday.
"Today, prices for petroleum products and crack spreads [the difference in price between oil and the petroleum products derived from it] have risen significantly around the world, and this also leaves its mark not only on the opportunities for our energy companies to receive additional income, but also on ensuring the stability of our domestic market, since, as you know, we have market pricing. Therefore, I believe that we - energy companies, the Energy Ministry and the government - need to work together in the shortest possible time to ensure the required mechanisms and instruments are adopted that would allow us to reliably ensure the domestic market and stably ensure that prices do not rise at filling stations. This isn't simple, it's complex, and it's very urgent," Novak said.
The Interfax sources said a temporary ban on gasoline export was almost decided. The need to ban diesel fuel exports is still under discussion.
They said the ban would probably be imposed for a whole quarter rather than a month.
Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev told journalists that Russia had received numerous requests for oil and oil product supplies from Asian countries due to the Middle East conflict and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. He said Russia would cover its own needs fully, as well as the contracts it has signed, "and we have reserves for additional exports of oil and petroleum products."
One of the sources said the government usually exempted supplies under intergovernmental agreements from bans.
Novak will hold a meeting on the fuel market situation this Friday, several sources said.
The International Energy Agency estimates that Russia exported 120,000 barrels of gasoline and 820,000 barrels of diesel per day in 2025, amid intermittent gasoline and diesel export bans. It exported 170,000 bpd of gasoline and 880,000 bpd of diesel in 2024.
In February 2026, when the ban on petroleum product exports was lifted a month early, the IEA calculated that Russia exported 90,000 bpd of gasoline and 850,000 bpd of diesel, compared to 70,000 bpd and 1 million bpd, respectively, in January.
Fuel prices in Russia have been rising since late February as the situation in the Middle East has escalated. But sources said there is currently no increase in demand for petroleum products within the country. Farmers are delaying their work due to weather conditions and snow that has not yet melted, and households are not actively purchasing fuel at gas stations either.
Thus, the sources said, the rapid rise in exchange prices reflects nervousness in global energy markets: global petroleum product prices are rising, and Russian fuel exports are increasing. But spring sowing in Russia will begin soon enough, along with scheduled maintenance at refineries, which will usher in new reasons for gasoline and diesel prices to rise on the St. Petersburg exchange.
