MOSCOW, August 28 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a government resolution on Friday increasing from September 1 Urals oil export duty to $238.6 per metric ton from the current $222.
As of September 1, duty on oil products will also go up, with duty on light petroleum products rising to $173.1 per ton from the current $161.9, and duty on heavy petroleum products increasing from $87.2 to $93.2 per ton.
Global oil prices averaged at $70 per barrel in August.
Last year, the government abandoned its previously accepted bimonthly adjustments of export duties based on the price of the Urals blend on global oil markets, and from December 1 switched to setting duties for oil and oil products on a monthly basis to respond more swiftly to changes in world oil prices.
The global financial crisis has forced Russia, which receives a large part of its revenues from oil exports, to gradually devalue the ruble amid capital flight and a fall in global oil prices, which declined from their peak of $147 per barrel in July 2008 to around $40 per barrel in early 2009, before climbing back to above $70 in recent weeks.
