MOSCOW, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Lukoil's (LKOH.MM) NORSI oil refinery in Nizhny Novgorod may halve high-octane gasoline output after an emergency stoppage at one of two plant's catalytic cracking unit, industry sources said on Monday.

Russian news agencies later issued contradictory reports on Russian authorities' response to the incident at Lukoil's plant. Interfax said that Moscow was considering a ban on gasoline exports, but TASS agency denied such plans were being discussed.

Russia's energy ministry said it was working with oil producers to ensure an uninterrupted supply of fuel to the domestic market while maintenance was taking place at the plant. Later the ministry declined to comment beyond what it had already said about the incident.

The NORSI oil refinery, one of the largest in Russia, halted a unit after an unspecified incident, Lukoil said on Friday.

Interfax quoted unnamed sources familiar with the situation as saying a gasoline export ban was an option that could be introduced if necessary. Another source told the agency that tools to prevent shortages on the domestic market were still being discussed.

Interfax said Lukoil had halted its own gasoline exports and asked other oil companies to help with supplies of up to 200,000 tones of AI-95-grade gasoline in January and February.

State-run TASS agency later cited a government source saying the ban "is not being discussed and is not being considered".

Last September, Russia introduced a ban on fuel exports - except to Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan - in order to tackle high domestic prices and shortages. Almost all the restrictions were subsequently removed by November.

Industry sources told Reuters on Monday there had been two incidents earlier this month at gasoline-producing units at the NORSI plant, which can process around 17 million metric tons of oil per year (340,000 barrels per day).

They said a catalytic cracking unit with a capacity of 6,300 tons per day was halted on Jan. 4, and there was also an outage at a reformer with a daily capacity of 3,000 tons per day on Jan. 7.

Two sources said the plant will halve production of high-octane gasoline. One of the sources said Lukoil will be forced to buy gasoline on the market for its own petrol stations.

"The breakdown is serious... There will be a reduction in production of AI-95, AI-98 (gasoline grades) this month," another source said.

NORSI produced 4.51 million tons of gasoline in January - November 2023.

According to industry data, Russia has stockpiles of 1.982 million tons of gasoline to help prevent fuel shortages on the domestic market.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russia-considers-gasoline-export-ban-after-incident-big-norsi-refinery-interfax-2024-01-15/