OREANDA-NEWS. The head of Rosneft and executive secretary of the presidential commission on the fuel and energy complex Igor Sechin asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to allow the company to export 10 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe a year against the backdrop of record high gas prices in Europe, writes the Kommersant newspaper on Friday, citing a letter Sechin.

Earlier in August, it was reported that the price of gas in Europe, after Gazprom's decision to book only 4% of the solid additional transit capacity of the gas transmission system (GTS) of Ukraine, renewed its historical maximum, for the first time exceeding $ 585 per thousand cubic meters. "We are not talking about canceling the export monopoly of Gazprom and changing the legislation. Rosneft wants to sign an agreement with the monopoly, according to which Gazprom will act as an agent in the export of gas for the oil company," the newspaper writes.

Also, according to Kommersant, the letter says that it is advisable to limit the supply by the presence of existing contracts with new consumers who are not buyers of gas from PJSC Gazprom. - the opportunity to increase budget revenues of the Russian Federation.

The letter states that at current gas prices in Europe, the MET rate may be "about 5 thousand rubles" per thousand cubic meters, which is "more than 3.5 times" higher than the current MET rate for Gazprom. Additional budget revenues - that is, the difference between Rosneft's "increased" export severance tax and Gazprom's current severance tax, will amount to 37 billion rubles a year, Sechin said in a letter. And, in his opinion, an increase in Rosneft's export deliveries in the future can provide an increase in additional income up to 150 billion rubles.

The head of Rosneft, as follows from the letter, proposes to tie the size of the severance tax for gas exported from the Russian Federation to its exchange price in Europe, making amendments to the Tax Code. 

According to Kommersant, Putin has already instructed Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and Finance Minister Anton Siluanov to consider Sechin's proposal and "report his opinion."