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Energy Ministry says gasoline surplus in Russia will reach 2.1 million tonnes in 2017

MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. The surplus of gasoline on the Russian market will reach 2.1 million tonnes in 2017, Deputy Energy Minister Kirill Molodtsov told TASS.

"We have already passed the stage when it was possible [the shortage of gasoline in Russia - TASS]. The market of diesel fuel is very loose now. As for motor gasoline, in 2017 we will produce 37.6 million tonnes of class 5 gasoline while the domestic consumption will be at approximately 35.5 million tonnes," he said.

Molodtstov stressed that excluding a condition from the agreement with Belarus obliging that country to supply at least 1 mln tonnes of oil products to Russia won’t lead to a fuel shortage on the Russian market.

Over the last few years Russia experienced shortage of gasoline production and exported the lacking volume from Belarus.

This year, according to Molodtsov's forecasts, the production of class 5 gasoline will grow by 1% to 37.6 million tonnes.

When asked what companies will do with the surplus of gasoline, he said that most likely they will sell these volumes on foreign markets.

The deputy minister also added that the capacity of Russian refineries at the end of 2016 amounted to about 300 million tonnes, while the volume of primary processing was 279.4 million tonnes. That means that the power margin is around 20 million tonnes.