Registration of Oil Product Transactions Fails to Attract Traders
In the first ten days of voluntary registration of over-the-counter oil product transactions, market participants did not submit a single contract, reported “Kommersant”. From March 2027, the procedure will become mandatory. The accounting process aims to enhance the transparency of transactions but will not eliminate fuel shortages, and will impose additional burdens on smaller traders, experts note.
Retail fuel prices are rising unevenly. According to Rosstat, from 31 August to 7 September, the average price of petrol in Russia increased by 49 kopecks, reaching 78.25 roubles per litre, while diesel fuel rose by 4 kopecks to 88.44 roubles per litre. Fuel prices increased in 49 regions, while they decreased in nine. In Moscow and Saint Petersburg, prices remained virtually unchanged over the week.
The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) positions the registration system as a tool to ensure the traceability of supply chains and to form a more transparent pricing model. Based on the collected data, indicative prices for regions are to be established, which will serve as benchmarks for controlling markups.
According to the FAS, there were no takers for the voluntary registration of contracts by 10 September.
However, they noted that in 2026, over 50 companies voluntarily registered transactions monthly, amounting to over 500,000 tonnes of oil products under wholesale contracts.
An industry source views the initiative as an attempt to demonstrate regulatory activity in a situation where they are unable to solve the primary issue—filling the domestic market with petrol due to the repercussions of attacks on oil refineries. In his assessment, the system will create significant operational costs for traders. Another participant in the trading community points out that the market share of the largest trader is 5% of the exchange, or 1% of the Russian market. Therefore, he continues, there are no dominant players among traders, meaning that significant impacts from the registration on the market are not expected.
Registration of over-the-counter transactions in itself will not become a tool for long-term price restraint, says Sergey Tereshkin, CEO of Open Oil Market. In his view, manual regulation and constant monitoring require substantial resources from regulators and traders and do not create incentives for reducing fuel costs. The statistics on over-the-counter sales, in and of themselves, cannot be a lever for price reduction: data collection will only increase administrative burdens, without ensuring market stabilization in the long term, he believes.
Managing Partner of NEFT Research, Sergey Frolov, believes that the new system will make the price formation chain more transparent but will not directly influence prices. The regulator, he explains, will be able to see the terms of transactions and identify any potential discrimination against independent participants; however, amidst supply shortages, this will not eliminate the underlying causes of increasing prices. Moreover, additional reporting requirements may increase the burden on smaller traders and create additional barriers for them.
Source: Kommersant
