Interfax quoted a Finance Ministry official said the export duty on Russian oil will probably fall to USD 108 to USD 112 from USD 115.3 a tonne on April 1st.
Mr Alexander Sakovich the ministry"s deputy head of customs payments said "We"re already pretty confident the duty will be lowered."
Mr Sakovich said the price of Russian crude averaged at USD 41.92 a barrel for the period February 15th and March 9th. He said that "It would have to exceed USD 48 a barrel for the next four trading days for the duty to be level with or higher than the existing one."
Mr Sakovich said market trends point to oil trading at USD 40 to USD 45 in the next four days, in which case it would average USD 41.54 to USD 42.54 a barrel for the whole observation period for February 15th to March 14th and the duty will be USD 108 per tonne to USD 112 per tonne.
The duty on light petroleum products will likely fall from USD 90 to USD 85 per tonne to USD 88 per tonne, and that on dark products from USD 48.5 to USD 46 per tonne to USD 47.5 a tonne.