Russia might decide to reinstate a gasoline export ban from August should there be supply shortages on the domestic fuel market, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters on Monday.

He said the domestic fuel market had been stable so far, but there had been some difficulties with a popular gasoline, the Ai-95 grade, which were being dealt with.

“If the situation gets tense, we will not extend the waiver for gasoline exports,” Novak said.

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Agency said on Friday it wanted to reinstate the gasoline export ban from Aug. 1 to help meet fuel demand during harvesting season and to safeguard price stability.

Russia initially partially banned gasoline exports for six months from March 1 but exempted a Moscow-led economic union and some countries with which it has direct inter-governmental agreements on fuel supplies, such as Mongolia.

The ban was introduced to pre-empt fuel shortages and stem a rise in prices after a spate of Ukrainian drone attacks on refineries and technical outages. The restrictions were suspended in May until June 30 and that suspension was then extended until the end of July.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Olesya Astakhova; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Christina Fincher)