Dmytro Patrushev, Russia’s agriculture minister, warned on Wednesday that fuel shortages threaten to disrupt this autumn’s grain harvest and called for a halt to oil exports, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported, citing Reuters.

Russia, one of the world’s biggest oil producers, is facing fuel shortages in parts of the country, including the south, and the situation could worsen in the coming months, according to market sources.

Analysts say Russia’s fuel market has been hit by a combination of factors, including maintenance work at some refineries, rail congestion due to shipments to the front and a weak ruble that is boosting exports.

Wholesale prices for diesel fuel began to rise sharply in July. Over the past two months, diesel fuel prices on the commodity exchange have risen by more than a quarter on average – up to 67,000 rubles ($700) per ton.

“We don’t buy. The prices are crazy,” a fuel depot owner told Reuters last week.

“We already have problems with availability (of fuel). We are now stopping harvesting and will not sow winter crops. It will be a disaster,” said the Minister of Agriculture of Russia during a joint meeting of the agrarian committees of the Russian Parliament.

“Perhaps it is time to temporarily suspend the export of oil products until we stabilize the situation on the domestic market,” he suggested.

In Russia, there are problems with fuel and crops

Interfax quotes the Deputy Minister of Energy of Russia, Pavel Sorokin, who replied that a ministerial order has already been prepared on this matter, which will be discussed in the government and the presidential administration.

Sorokin noted that the order is aimed at banning the export of petroleum products by entities other than oil producers, and hopes that the ban on so-called “gray” exports will be implemented within a few days or “no more than a week.”

The debate in the Russian parliament took place just a day after Russia agreed with Saudi Arabia to continue a joint strategy to cut oil production.

Political analysts are already pointing out that Russia’s greater fuel shortage will be a headache for the Kremlin through next year’s presidential election, and the crop woes will deal a double whammy: domestically – raising prices – and diplomatically, with Russia promising to continue shipping millions of tons of grain to Africa for free.

After the introduction of Western sanctions, the country led by Vladimir Putin ended the export of record volumes of oil to India and China to finance the 560-year-old war in Ukraine.