Russia will cut its oil export duty from the current $115.3 to $108-$112 per metric ton from April 1, a Finance Ministry official said on Tuesday.

"The average Urals blend price in the monitoring period from February 15 to March 9 was $41.92 per barrel," Alexander Sakovich said. "Considering the current [market] trends, the average price this month is expected be $41.54-$42.54 per barrel and in this case export duty will be set at $108-$112 from April 1," he said.

As of April 1, the duty on light petroleum products will drop to $85-88 per metric ton from the current $90 per ton and on heavy petroleum products to $46-47.5 per metric ton from $48.5 per ton, Sakovich said.

Last year, the government abandoned its previously accepted bimonthly practice of monitoring the price of the Urals blend on global oil markets and from December 1 switched to setting export duties for oil and oil products on a monthly basis to respond more swiftly to changes in world oil prices.

The global financial crisis has forced Russia, which receives a large part of its revenues from oil exports, to gradually devalue the ruble amid capital flight and a fall in global oil prices, which have declined from their peak of $147 per barrel in July 2008 to around $40 per barrel.
sections: Economics