Russian government to discuss gasoline exports ban next week, sources say

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak will preside over a meeting of government officials and oil producers next week to discuss a possible gasoline exports ban for fuel producers from March 1, three industry sources said.

Novak's office declined to comment. One of the sources said the meeting may take place on Tuesday or Thursday.

Last week, news agency TASS reported that the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service may initiate a one-month ban on gasoline exports by large producers in order to stabilise wholesale prices ahead of the crop-sowing season.

At the moment, major oil companies are allowed to export gasoline but traders and resellers are banned from doing so, under a measure originally implemented last March.

The initial ban on gasoline exports was introduced in March last year to address a sharp rise in wholesale fuel prices and the risk of a shortage on the domestic market.

It excludes supplies to the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union, a group of five former Soviet states, and to countries such as Mongolia with which Russia has intergovernmental agreements on fuel supplies.

The biggest importers of Russian gasoline include Nigeria, Libya, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Hugh Lawson)