The increase in export duties for motor oils, fuels and other petrochemical products will be executed as an offset for the decrease of the crude oil export duties planned for the period of 2019-2024, according to a clarification in the bill, published on the official judiciary site of the Russian Federation.

In addition, the new duty tariffs are introduced as push for introduction of new types of oil products and incentives for their supply in the domestic market. It also gives possibility to achieve additional income coming from the oil product exports, read the text of the draft-law initiated by the Duma earlier this month.

The current export duty for lubricants, fuels and other petrochemical products stands at 30 percent of the crude tariffs. Under the new law, duties on petrochemical products could increase to 90 percent of crude duties.

Experts believe this move is merely another way for the county to fill its coffers.

Regarding the rationality of this law, having in mind the vertically integrated state of our petrochemical industry it is hard to predict what it would mean in reality, Oleg Tsvetkov, chief specialist at Topchiev Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis of the Russian Academy of Science, told Lube Report last week. Even more, it is very hard to predict what would happen three years from now – the market for oil products is very volatile.