Russia to Raise October Oil Export Tax 6.4% on Urals Price Gain

Russia, the world’s biggest energy exporter, will increase duties on most oil shipments abroad by 6.4 percent from Oct. 1, reaching the highest rate since June after Urals crude prices rose.

The standard export duty will rise to $418.90 a metric ton, or about $57.15 a barrel, from $393.80 a ton in September, according an order signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and published today in Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the state newspaper.

The government plans to review the current export duty structure by the first quarter of next year to stimulate output and meet President Vladimir Putin’s goal of more than 10 million barrels a day for at least a decade. Production climbed to a post-Soviet high of 10.37 million barrels a day in August, according to the Energy Ministry’s CDU-TEK unit.

The discounted rate on some eastern Siberian and Caspian Sea grades will increase to $210.10 a ton from $191.30 this month. The levy on extra-heavy crude, set at 10 percent of the standard duty, will reach $41.80 in October.

Russia bases the export taxes on the average Urals blend price from the 15th day of one month to the 14th of the next. The benchmark export grade averaged $113.98 a barrel during the most recent period, Alexander Sakovich, a Finance Ministry adviser, said by phone on Sept. 17. In the previous monitoring period, it averaged $108.25, according to the ministry.

The duty for middle distillates, such as diesel, and heavy products, such as fuel oil, will climb to $276.40 a ton next month from $259.90 in September. A gasoline tax imposed from May 2011 to counter domestic shortages will increase to $377 a ton from $354.40 this month. That is 90 percent of the crude oil duty.

The government will raise the duty on liquefied petroleum gases such as butane and propane to $172.50 a ton in October from $76.20 this month.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jake Rudnitsky in Moscow at jrudnitsky@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net