According to Russia's Finance Ministry, oil companies received 305.5 billion rubles in September to bolster domestic road-fuel supply, an amount exceeded only in April 2022. Since January, the running total of these payouts has climbed past $14 billion. Those September subsidies were just shy of the 323.3 billion rubles the oil sector paid into the federal budget that month. Interfax reported, citing documents sent to the State Duma with the 2027-29 budget draft, that the government projects the subsidy bill to reach 1.93 trillion rubles for all of 2026 and to drop to 1.18 trillion rubles the year after.
Ukraine has been hitting a wide range of Russian oil infrastructure - pipeline links, export terminals, and refineries - in a bid to curb the money backing the Kremlin's war, now in its fifth year. The strikes have reduced output of oil products, triggering gasoline shortages, rationing, and queues at forecourts. Producers have had to undertake broad unplanned maintenance, and some plants cut runs or shut down entirely after the attacks. The subsidies are helping keep refiners afloat through that disruption.
Wartime strikes on refineries reach drivers long before they reach headlines. Market Briefs tracks fuel markets free every morning.
The formula links subsidies to refiners' domestic sales volumes and to the differential between wholesale prices at home and on the export market. To keep plants running, subsidies continue despite restrictions on overseas sales, including a prohibition covering the bulk of gasoline, diesel, and jet-fuel exports. Another rule halting diesel exports remains in effect through the end of October.
Most of the funding is directed to the biggest oil producers - such as Rosneft PJSC and Tatneft PJSC - that run the country's key refineries. To keep domestic supply steady, the government has also opened the door for fuel importers to receive support.
There is a quirk in the mechanism: when the regulated base price for car fuel at home rises above export pricing, refiners actually pay into the budget, which shows up as negative subsidies. There were no such payments in October 2023.
Based on Finance Ministry data, Bloomberg calculates that Russia's net oil and gas income in September totaled 452.4 billion rubles, a drop of more than one fifth from a year earlier. That happened even with Urals crude priced higher than last year and a weaker ruble. The ministry's oil revenue tally folds in the extraction tax on gas condensate, the profit based tax, and refinery subsidies, and the hefty September payouts were a big reason net income fell.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Reuters over the weekend that Kyiv will intensify strikes on Russian energy facilities after sustained attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. For your wallet, the simple read is that Russia is diverting more cash to keep domestic fuel flowing, which reshapes how much budget money is left over and how reliably oil-and-gas cash flows through its economy.
Domestic fuel costs are becoming a real constraint on Russia's economy. Get the free Market Briefs daily newsletter and follow the squeeze.
