FAS Activity Tripled
The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia has opened 41 cases against oil companies and independent market participants from the start of the year to 17 August, and has issued 68 warnings to businesses regarding violations of antimonopoly legislation, the press service of the agency reported to "Izvestia".
As of 21 May, the FAS and regional bodies were considering 11 such cases involving participants in the fuel market. Thus, 30 proceedings were initiated during the summer — nearly three times more than in the first five months of the year.All cases pertain to violations of the "On Competition Protection" law and the Administrative Offences Code, which prohibit cartel agreements and abuse of dominant market position, "Izvestia" found. Most violations have been recorded against independent companies operating gas stations in various regions, as well as two firms selling fuel under the "Gazpromneft" brand, namely LLC "Gazpromneft - Regional Sales" and two oil traders.
The antimonopoly service has started to respond actively to rising prices and legislative violations due to the government's close attention to this issue, noted Dmitry Gusev, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the "Reliable Partner" association. Additionally, due to rising exchange prices for fuel and supply shortages, owners of independent fuel stations have begun significantly hiking prices, leading to an increase in citizen complaints to the FAS.
Sergey Tereshkin, General Director of Open Oil Market, believes that the rise in the number of warnings and antimonopoly cases was predictable following the spike in fuel prices in June: the regulator is trying to "temper the appetites" of certain market participants and thus aid in price stabilization.
New Wave of Queues at Fuel Stations
In recent days, several regions have witnessed a new wave of fuel shortages and queues at gas stations. For instance, in Moscow, certain stations periodically have virtually all grades of petrol unavailable. On 17 August, reporters from "Izvestia" visited 21 filling stations in Moscow and the surrounding area: the 92-octane grade was available at seven, the 95-octane at six, while the 98-octane was found at only five stations. Even diesel is not consistently available. The editorial team has submitted a request to the Moscow government.
On 14 August, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak held another meeting regarding the situation in the domestic fuel market. A representative of the Ministry of Energy reported that a tense situation with fuel supplies at gas stations persists in several regions of the country, the government statement noted. Notably, the issue of ensuring fuel supplies to Orenburg, Lipetsk, Tver, and Oryol regions, as well as Tuva, Khakassia, Krasnodar region, Trans-Baikal, Primorsky, and Krasnoyarsk regions was raised.
According to the app "GdeBENZ" as of 16 August, fuel was available at 28.1% of filling stations across the country. This is a decrease from 41% a week prior. The availability of petrol and diesel has declined in Volgograd, Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Voronezh, Samara, Penza, Saratov, Lipetsk, Rostov regions and Tatarstan, as per the app's data.
The first wave of queues at filling stations in Russia emerged at the end of May and lasted about a month and a half. At the end of July, Deputy Prime Minister Novak stated that the fuel balance and situation at filling stations in Russia had improved.
According to Rosstat, during the week of 4 to 10 August, a decrease in prices for automotive gasoline was recorded in 44 regions of the Russian Federation, most significantly in the Republic of Dagestan (-9.1%). In Moscow, prices dropped by 0.2%. The largest price increase was noted in Tver region — by 6.8%.
Overall, this indicates that the fuel situation in Russia is developing unevenly: despite significant overall gasoline production, logistical difficulties make it harder to deliver to certain regions, a source within the industry told "Izvestia".
The Ministry of Energy informed "Izvestia" that they, in collaboration with regional authorities, other departments, and oil companies, are taking measures to ensure the domestic market has sufficient volumes of petroleum products.
The government has already imposed a temporary ban on fuel exports, allowed the circulation of gasoline of Euro-2, Euro-3, and Euro-4 environmental classes, established an import price cap to stimulate fuel supplies to the Russian Federation, and modified exchange mechanisms.
"Izvestia" has sent queries to the office of Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and to the largest oil companies.
The new wave of shortages has arisen due to ongoing attacks and unscheduled repairs at oil refineries, explained Igor Yushkov, lead analyst at the National Energy Security Fund. Additionally, August is traditionally characterised by peak demand in the domestic market, particularly for gasoline.
Sergey Tereshkin believes that the lack of high-octane fuel grades at certain stations is a consequence of the market balance remaining very fragile even after the first wave of the crisis. The restructuring of logistics has helped to stabilise fuel availability in major cities; however, it has not significantly impacted the balance of supply and demand.
Dmitry Gusev notes that the market requires more systemic support measures. He considers the key necessity to be a more active transition of consumers to alternative types of engines and fuels. Additionally, logistical challenges with fuel supplies remain, the expert added.
In the near future, fuel from India is set to arrive at Russian filling stations. A large shipment recently arrived in Murmansk but has not yet been unloaded from the tankers, a source from the industry informed "Izvestia". The price of the shipment was high, and purchasing it for resale in the Russian domestic market could have meant selling at a loss for oil companies.
As reported by the media, Indian AI-92 was initially offered at 130,000 rubles per ton. Later, the price decreased to 110,000 rubles. As of 17 August, the territorial exchange index for AI-92 for the European part of Russia was approximately 73,000 rubles per ton, according to data from the St. Petersburg International Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange. However, as the source added, acceptable unloading conditions have still been agreed upon.
Sergey Tereshkin believes that the further development of the situation will depend on the duration of technological downtimes at the refineries. Furthermore, he opines that imports from Belarus and a softening of environmental regulations will significantly impact the physical availability of fuel compared to supplies from India, which require adjustments to logistics and pricing mechanisms to reach a significant level.
Source: Izvestia
