Alexander Sakovich, deputy director of the ministry's customs department, said export duty on oil would be raised as the price of the Urals blend during the ministry's monitoring period from April 15 to May 11 averaged $50.23 per barrel.
If the trend continues, Sakovich said, the average price for Urals crude will reach $50.20-50.91 for the period of April 15 - May 14.
In this case, as of June 1, the duty on light petroleum products will rise to $112.5-115 from the current $105.1 per metric ton and on heavy petroleum products to $60.5-62 from the current $56.6 per ton, Sakovich said.
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, before climbing back in recent weeks to above $50.
