Bashneft wants compensation for losses from higher gasoline export duty
UFA. May 26 (Interfax) - Bashneft is counting on the state to compensate it for losses from higher export duties on gasoline, Bashneft President Alexander Korsik told journalists.
Bashneft has halted gasoline exports and is focusing instead on keeping its retail chain supplied and selling refined products on the commodity exchange and directly to other companies. Bashneft also offers discount prices on diesel fuel for agricultural producers: the price is currently 30% below the market price.
Reducing the natural resource extraction tax (NRET) rates would be a suitable way to compensate declining revenue from the prohibitive export duty on gasoline, board chairman Alexander Goncharuk said. "That is the simplest solution to the problem," he said.
Commenting on rising gasoline prices in the Russian regions, Korsik said: "I would not dramatize the situation. That happens in all countries when oil prices rise: the price of gasoline rises too."
"I believe the situation is absolutely normal. The prices at filling stations in Bashkortostan [where Bashneft is based] are absolutely normal, reasonable. They don't provide any excess profit. Moreover, although we are a for-profit company, we are taking into account the authorities' desire to maintain market stability. And we are deliberately not making any profit, we are even losing money," he said.
The situation has prompted the company to rework its refinery maintenance schedule, he said.
Bashneft recently acquired a retail company, Orenburgnefteprodukt and is considering buying more filling stations in the regions where it already operates, he said. However, the company is not in talks with RussNeft to acquire the Orsknefteorgsintez refinery, he said.
Bashneft is not planning any increases to its refining capacity. "Twenty million tonnes [a year] is the figure for the foreseeable future," he said. Nonetheless, in the current situation the company "is looking at that number every month." Korsik did not specify the amount of investment in oil refining, but said it was in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
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