Russia to raise oil export duty to $115.3 per ton from March 1

MOSCOW, February 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will raise export duty on oil to $115.3 per metric ton from the current rate of $100.9 per ton following a stabilization of oil prices on world markets, a Finance Ministry official said Sunday.

Alexander Sakovich, deputy director of the ministry's customs department, said the export duty on oil would be raised for the first time in the past four months as the price of the Urals blend during the ministry's monitoring period from January 15 to February 14 averaged $43.2 per barrel.

As of March 1, the duty on light petroleum products will rise to $90 per ton from $80.3 per ton and on heavy petroleum products to $48.5 per ton from $43.2 per ton, Sakovich said.

Last year, the government abandoned its previously accepted bimonthly practice of monitoring the price of the Urals blend on global oil markets and from December 1 switched to setting export duties on 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 have declined from their peak of $147 per barrel in July 2008 to around $40 per barrel.