List of special petroleum product exporters drafted, but not finalized - Russian energy minister

VLADIVOSTOK. Sept 11 (Interfax) - A list of special petroleum product exporters exists but has not yet been finalized, Russian Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov told reporters on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.

"It is not final yet. The document that is in the government concerns approaches and criteria," he said.

The Russian government plans to approve the list of special exporters to preventing "gray" exports soon, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters at the end of August.

The Energy Ministry had proposed at the end of July, when motor fuel prices rose significantly on the exchange, to establish a list of special exporters of petroleum products as one way of curbing gray exports, when products purchased on the domestic market and for which a fuel damper has been paid from the country's budget are exported outside Russia. Novak backed the proposal.

But the Economic Development Ministry suggested exports be licensed, and Novak in the middle of August asked the Energy Ministry to look at that option as well.

Sources told Interfax earlier that the Energy Ministry's criteria for special exporters included the amount of crude refining or amount of paid taxes.