BRUSSELS, February 5. /TASS/. The European Union together with the Group of Seven (G7) and Australia introduces the price ceiling for seaborne carriage of Russian petroleum products amounting to $100 and $45 per barrel, depending on their categories.

Limits will be effective for the Western business and logistical companies and territories controlled by the West. The transitional period will last for 55 days from February 5 to April 1. Price levels will be revised once in two months.

The ban on seaborne deliveries of Russian petroleum products agreed last June will be effective in the EU countries from Sunday. Oil supplies via pipelines are not limited.

The EU Council approved the decision to set the price cap on February 4. Two price levels have been introduced for Russian petroleum products. The first one of $45 a barrel is set for petroleum products sold with the discount against crude oil (fuel oil and naphtha). The other one of $100 per barrel is for oil products sold with a premium to crude oil (diesel fuel and kerosene).

The transitional period of fifty five days is effective to perform supplies contacts made before February 5. The condition for them is that the fuel should have been loaded on board of a vessel by February 5 and the ship should arrive in the port of destination by April 1.

Domestic fuel sales in Russia are growing at the same time. Sales of petroleum products on the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange gained 7.5% to 2.1 mln metric tons in January. The Exchange does not expect a serious impact of the embargo on the internal market and believes the situation with petroleum products in Russia will be calm this year.