Russia has extended its gasoline export ban, with exemptions for producers, for six months starting in March, the state-run RIA news agency reported on Thursday, citing a source.

At the moment, major oil companies are allowed to export gasoline but traders and resellers are banned from doing so, under a measure originally implemented last March.

The initial ban on gasoline exports was introduced in March last year to address a sharp rise in wholesale fuel prices and the risk of a shortage on the domestic market.

It excludes supplies to the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union, a group of five former Soviet states, and to countries such as Mongolia with which Russia has intergovernmental agreements on fuel supplies.

The biggest importers of Russian gasoline include Nigeria, Libya, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.
Source: Reuters