The decree, published on the official legal information portal, approves a list of information in the fuel and energy sector to which access is restricted, along with rules for its use. The data covered by the list may not be disseminated, including through the media and the internet. An exception is made for information a company discloses about its own activities. State bodies will be able to obtain the restricted data within the scope of their powers.
The restrictions cover a wide set of export data: the names and quantities of goods shipped, their value and average export prices, and information about sellers and buyers. Also classified are data on carriers, freight forwarders and insurers, on vessels used for sea transport, container numbers and the details of transport documents.
The list includes supply destinations and routes, the places where goods are handed over, loaded, transshipped and delivered, the names of sea terminals and information about their operators, the geographic coordinates of warehouses and sites for accumulating export cargo, and the dates and exact times when operations with such cargo begin and end.
Putin separately designated as restricted-access information the volumes of processing and production of goods by Russian oil refineries. Also classified are data on planned volumes of gasoline and diesel sales and on the volumes of deals concluded in the main trading sessions of each trading day. The restriction applies to producers of crude oil, companies affiliated with them and a number of other major market participants.
The decree says the measures were taken "in response to the unfriendly and internationally unlawful actions of the United States of America and the foreign states and international organizations that have joined it." The government must determine the specific goods covered by the ban within 10 days.
Some of the information listed was already unavailable. In April 2022, the Central Dispatching Department of the Fuel and Energy Complex stopped providing statistics on oil production by individual companies, supplies of crude to the domestic market and oil exports, and on shipments of gasoline from Russian refineries and gas processing plants. In June of that year, the department closed data on primary processing of crude oil and production of main petroleum products at refineries and gas processing plants, as well as on producer prices for petroleum products. The Energy Ministry attributed the closure of the statistics to concerns that it could be used to pressure Russian companies and the market.
According to The Insider, the decree by itself will not make Russian oil exports invisible: tanker movements are tracked through the international AIS system and commercial shipping data services, while export estimates draw on port data, ship registries and the customs statistics of recipient countries. Most significant in this regard is information that cannot be obtained by observing a tanker's movement: data on the specific sellers and buyers of cargo, intermediaries, carriers and insurers, the value of the goods and the payment arrangements.