Kazakhstan is banning the export of fuels for four months regardless of the mode of transportation, beginning on February 18, the Kazakh Finance Ministry said in a statement.
The country is banning exports of gasoline, diesel, and certain types of other oil products, the state revenue committee at the ministry said on February 8, with the ban effective ten days after the announcement.
The Kazakh Finance Ministry thus informed all participants in foreign trade, carriers, freight forwarders, customs representatives, and other stakeholders that they should comply with the ban.
The purpose of the ban is to ensure enough fuel supply domestically and prevent shortages.
The ban in Kazakhstan comes days after the EU embargo on imports of Russian fuels and the price cap on diesel and other products came into effect on February 5.
The embargo has been combined with price caps for deliveries to third countries, agreed upon with the G7 in the same way that the EU and the G7 coordinated the price cap on Russian crude last year. The EU has set a price cap of $100 per barrel on Russian diesel, meaning that buyers of diesel from third countries should either comply with the cap and buy the diesel at or below $100 a barrel or lose the insurance and finance services of Western companies for the cargoes.
Europe, for its part, has raised its imports of fuels from the Middle East and the United States in preparation for the EU ban, but just ahead of the embargo, Europe was still the biggest buyer of Russian diesel. The EU will have to boost imports from non-Russian suppliers significantly after the embargo kicked in on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Russia had diverted most of its fuel oil and vacuum gasoil (VGO) exports to Asia and the Middle East even before the EU embargo on Russian petroleum products took effect.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More