Putin: Oil product shortages in Russia “absurd”

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, addressing a conference on the development of the oil industry, called the current shortage of petroleum products in Russia “absurd”. “Last year, Russia became the world’s leader in terms of oil production. This is an optimal amount of crude, which can fully meet both our domestic and export demands. At the same time, we regularly face problems on the domestic market of petroleum products, which is an absurd situation for a leading oil producer,” he said. The prime minister said that Russia refines less than half the oil it produces and the country does not have the technology to produce high quality fuel. To address this issue, Putin said the government will no longer allow the country’s oil refiners to receive tax breaks when they do not modernize their refineries. “Oil companies have assured us that funds received from the variance of duties on crude oil and dark oil products, a so-called premium, are being put into the development of deep oil refining. In fact, that has unfortunately turned out to be far from the case. The qualitative renewal of Russian oil refineries is not taking place,” he said. (July 8-9, 2011)