Russian oil companies give priority to domestic supply

Russia's Energy Ministry said it has no plans to place restrictions on exports of petrol, but it strongly recommends to the oil companies to pay attention to the supply on the domestic market in the first place. "Last month, 50,000 tons were exported compared with 210,000 tons a month before," Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters in Rostov-on-Don on Thursday, adding that nothing bad is happening compared with previous years. The ministry's objective is to prevent retail price hikes. "The wholesale prices have already started to decrease: the price of Ai-95 petrol has decreased by 6.5 percent and Ai-92 by 5.5 percent in the past few days," Novak said.