Sales of Belarusian Petrol on the St. Petersburg Exchange Decline in Early July

Sales of Belarusian petrol on the St. Petersburg Exchange declined in early July, Kommersant reported. According to the Russian newspaper, more than 7,000 tonnes of fuel were sold per day on July 1–2, while volumes fell to 420 tonnes on July 6.

*Kommersant* suggests that Belarusian refineries may have already sold nearly all of their July fuel allocations. Another factor affecting trading volumes may have been new price restrictions. Belarusian petrol was recently made subject to a limit of 0.01% on price increases at each stage of exchange trading, which may have made exchange sales less attractive and shifted Belarusian volumes to the over-the-counter market.

According to the newspaper’s sources, Belarusian refineries shipped around 150,000 tonnes of fuel in June, while sales through the St. Petersburg Exchange increased 3.6-fold year on year to 90,900 tonnes. Overall petrol sales through the exchange fell by 23.9% to 610,360 tonnes. As a result, Belarusian fuel accounted for 15% of the exchange’s petrol supply last month.