01/24/2026

In 2025, Russian refineries received half as much money from the fuel damper budget as in 2024.

The Russian government pays a damper as a subsidy to oil companies to keep domestic fuel prices down. Thanks to the Ukrainian strikes, it was problematic to keep fuel prices in the Russian Federation below export prices in 2025.

The reduction in damper payments has narrowed the investment opportunities of Russian oil companies. Some refineries have postponed scheduled repairs to the future in order to supply the domestic market with fuel, which increases the risks of man-made accidents.

The freezing of investment processes in the Russian oil and gas industry is also evidenced by the drop in pipe production in the Russian Federation by almost 20% in 2025. It seems that Russian oil companies have postponed the resolution of the problems that accumulated in 2025 to 2026.

The most interesting thing will be when, a month before the start of the sowing season, Russian refineries will start to light up like candles again, and for those lucky ones who did not have the opportunity to get acquainted with Ukrainian UAVs, it will be time to go for repairs.

However, this is a matter of the future, but already in the first 12 days of 2026, gasoline prices in the Russian Federation resumed their growth, increasing by 1.18%. Of course, this was under the pressure of the increase in VAT.

https://www.obozrevatel.com/ukr/novosti-rossii/rosijski-npz-gotuyutsya-stati-tsilyami-zsu.htm