OREANDA-NEWSWholesale prices for AI-92 gasoline at the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange from April 13 to 19 decreased by 4.2 thousand rubles, or almost 11%, to 35.77 thousand rubles per ton. This is reported by the Russian media with reference to the estimates of experts of the agency "Analytics of commodity markets".

Media clarifies that the decline in wholesale prices was due to a sharp drop in demand for gasoline at Russian nuclear power plants amid restrictive measures to combat the spread of coronavirus. This led to a drop in car traffic.

At the same time, the main reason for the losses of oil industry workers was the increase in damper payments, the chief economist of VYGON Consulting Sergey Yezhov told the publication. "If in January 2020 it amounted to 100 rubles per ton, now it is more than 17 thousand rubles per ton", the publication said.

According to Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Sazanov, oil companies can transfer 700 billion rubles to the Russian budget in 2020 for a damper at an oil price of $ 25-30 per barrel.