RusEnergy

June 01, 2007 Kommersant.ru - Russia has hiked today the duty on crude oil exports to $200.6/ton from $156.4/ton. Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov sealed the respective ruling in mid.-May. In addition to crude oil, the duty on refined oil exports reached $147.5/ton, and the duty on dark oil product exports grew to $79.4/ton; previous indicators were $117.7/ton and $63.4/ton respectively. Of interest is that Belarus has also stepped up crude oil duties today, making them equal to Russia’s duties. This unification was specified in the intergovernmental agreement that Russia and Belarus concluded January 12, 2007. Russia revises the duties on crude oil exports each two months, after monitoring prices of world markets. The duties go down following the global drop in prices.