Russia looking at relaxing environmental norms to boost gasoline supply

Russia’s government is looking at the possibility of introducing some easing of rigorous fuel environmental standards in order to allow the usage of low-quality gasoline in the face of possible fuel shortages, three industry sources told Reuters.

According to sources’ calculations, it could bring in additional 10%, or between 300,000 metric tons and 350,000 tons a month, of gasoline to the domestic market, enough to meet rising seasonal demand.

Ukrainian drone attacks have reduced Russian primary oil refining capacity by some 14% as of the end of March according to Reuters calculations. Russia says the drone attacks amount to terrorism.