FAS Activity Tripled
Since the beginning of the year until August 17, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia has initiated 41 cases against oil companies and independent market participants, issuing 68 warnings to entities for violating antitrust laws, as reported by the agency's press service to Izvestia.
As of May 21, the FAS and its regional branches were reviewing 11 such cases concerning participants in the oil products market. Thus, in the summer alone, 30 cases were initiated — almost three times more than in the first five months of the year.All cases pertain to violations of articles from the Law on Protection of Competition and the Administrative Offenses Code, which prohibit cartel agreements and the abuse of dominant market positions, as revealed by Izvestia. Most violations have been recorded from independent companies operating gas stations in various regions, as well as from two companies selling fuel under the "Gazpromneft" brand, specifically from LLC "Gazpromneft – Regional Sales" and two oil traders.
The antimonopoly service has begun to actively respond to rising prices and legislative violations due to the government’s heightened 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, independent gas station owners have started significantly increasing prices, which has led to a surge in citizen complaints to the FAS.
Sergey Tereshkin, General Director of Open Oil Market, believes that the rise in the number of warnings and antitrust cases was foreseeable following the price spike in June: the regulator is attempting to "curb the appetites" of several market participants and thus facilitate price stabilization.
New Wave of Queues at Gas Stations
Recently, several regions have experienced a new wave of fuel shortages and lengthy queues at gas stations. For instance, in Moscow, many gas stations are intermittently devoid of nearly all types of gasoline. On August 17, correspondents from Izvestia visited 21 gas stations in Moscow and the surrounding area: 92-octane fuel was available at seven stations, 95-octane at six, and 98-octane at only five. Even diesel is not consistently available. The editorial office sent a request to the government of Moscow.
On August 14, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak held another meeting regarding the situation in the domestic fuel market. A representative from the Ministry of Energy reported that in several regions of the country, the supply situation at gas stations remains tense, as noted in the government's announcement. Specifically, the issue of fuel supply for the Orenburg, Lipetsk, Tver, and Oryol regions, Tuva, Khakassia, and Krasnodar, Transbaikal, Primorsky, and Krasnoyarsk territories was raised.
According to the "GdeBENZ" app as of August 16, fuel was available at 28.1% of gas stations nationwide. This figure had been 41% a week prior. The availability of gasoline and diesel has decreased in Volgograd, Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Voronezh, Samara, Penza, Saratov, Lipetsk, Rostov regions, and Tatarstan, based on the app data.
The first wave of queues at gas stations in Russia emerged at the end of May and lasted approximately a month and a half. At the end of July, Deputy Prime Minister Novak stated that the fuel balance and the situation at gas stations in Russia had improved.
According to Rosstat, from August 4 to 10, a decrease in automobile gasoline prices was recorded in 44 subjects of the Russian Federation, most notably in the Republic of Dagestan (-9.1%). In Moscow, prices decreased by 0.2%. The highest price increase, meanwhile, was noted in Tver Oblast — by 6.8%.
Overall, this indicates that the fuel situation in Russia is evolving unevenly: despite substantial gasoline production volumes, delivering fuel to certain subjects remains challenging, partly due to logistics issues, an industry source told Izvestia.
The Ministry of Energy informed Izvestia that they, in collaboration with regional authorities, other agencies, and oil companies, are taking measures to ensure the domestic market receives necessary volumes of petroleum products.
The government has already imposed a temporary ban on fuel exports, permitted the circulation of gasoline of ecological classes Euro-2, Euro-3, and Euro-4, established an import damping mechanism to stimulate fuel supplies to Russia, and altered exchange mechanisms.
Izvestia submitted inquiries 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, a leading analyst at the National Energy Security Fund. Furthermore, August traditionally sees peak demand in the domestic market, particularly for gasoline.
Sergey Tereshkin believes that the absence of high-octane fuel at certain gas stations is a consequence of the fact that even after the first wave of the crisis, the market balance remained quite fragile. Logistics adjustments helped stabilize the fuel availability situation in major cities, but did not seriously impact supply and demand balance.
Dmitry Gusev notes that the market needs 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, there are still logistical challenges regarding fuel supplies, the expert added.
In the near future, fuel from India is expected to arrive at Russian gas stations. A large shipment recently arrived in Murmansk but has not yet been unloaded from the tankers, a source in the industry told Izvestia. The cost of the shipment was high, and purchasing it for resale in the domestic market could mean selling it at a loss for oil companies.
As reported by media, Indian AI-92 was initially offered at 130,000 rubles per ton. Later, the price dropped to 110,000 rubles. Meanwhile, as of August 17, the regional exchange index for AI-92 in the European part of Russia was approximately 73,000 rubles per ton, according to data from the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange. However, as noted by the informant, acceptable shipment conditions have finally been agreed upon.
Sergey Tereshkin believes that the further development of the situation will depend on the duration of technological downtime at refineries. According to him, imports from Belarus and the easing of environmental requirements will have a more significant impact on the physical availability of fuel than supplies from India, which require further adjustment of logistics and pricing mechanisms to reach a significant level.
Source: Izvestia
