Russia stops diesel exports due to fuel crisis

Russo-Ukrainian War

Russia stops diesel exports due to fuel crisis

Drivers in Russia have to wait in front of the gas station for hours. The government wants to ease the situation with hastily imposed measures. President Putin sees no real problems.

While Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin the fuel crisis Russia classified as temporary, the government has Moscow Stopped the export of diesel and started importing fuel. “Today we banned the export of diesel, which allows us to increase supplies to the domestic market,” Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said at a meeting called by Putin on the situation in the energy sector.

Drivers sometimes stand in kilometer-long queues at Russian gas stations to get fuel. Nowak spoke of a tense market situation. The background is that the Ukraine In its defense against the Russian invasion, numerous oil processing plants have recently been taken out of operation with drone attacks.

The deputy head of government responsible for the energy sector reported on the cabinet’s support measures. Russia will also begin importing fuel this month in order to ease the situation. In-house production should be stabilized by refineries postponing scheduled repairs to a later date. According to Nowak, the crisis is worsening due to the beginning of the harvest season and higher demand for gasoline from drivers.

Moscow had already imposed a ban on the export of gasoline in April. Nevertheless, many gas stations no longer sell gasoline, and others only provide fuel in limited quantities.

Putin himself once again tried to downplay the economic problems caused by the war against Ukraine that he ordered. Kyiv are trying to damage the Russian economy and create nervousness in the country by striking the energy infrastructure. “All of us here understand that this task is impossible,” said the Kremlin chief. Russia’s energy sector has one of the largest security buffers in the world. It is only necessary to organize work with the oil companies in such a way that they do not keep excess fuel as a reserve for their own gas station chain, but rather share it with independent providers, Putin ordered. The current bottlenecks are temporary.

With its strikes against Russian refineries, Ukraine has hit a significant portion of its processing capacity. The fuel crisis that originally began in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, has now affected almost all regions of the country.