MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has asked Kazakhstan to be ready to supply 100,000 tonnes of gasoline in the event of a shortage exacerbated by Ukrainian drone attacks and outages, three industry sources told Reuters.
One of the sources clarified that an agreement on the use of the reserves for Russia had already been reached.
The energy ministries of Russia and Kazakhstan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Belarus has already agreed to help Russia with gasoline supplies.
By the end of March, drone attacks had wiped out some 14% of Russian crude oil refining capacity. So far, authorities have said the situation on domestic fuel markets is stable and stocks are sufficiently large.
Russia is typically a fuel exporter and supplier to international markets, but refinery disruptions have forced its oil companies to import.
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Moscow imposed a six-month gasoline export ban starting March 1 to prevent serious fuel shortages. However, this does not apply to the Eurasian Economic Union comprising Kazakhstan and other countries such as Mongolia, with which it has concluded intergovernmental agreements on fuel supplies.
Traders, however, said the ban could be expanded if the situation in Russia worsens.
Last week, the Orsk refinery in the Urals halted production due to widespread flooding, which also affected Kazakhstan.
The latter also restricted fuel exports until the end of the year, except for humanitarian purposes.
(Reuters reporting, writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; French version Federica Mileo, editing by Kate Entringer)
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