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Oilmen Shared Wholesale
Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service eventually succeeded in driving down wholesale prices for petroleum. The price for diesel fuel sank 2.35 percent and aviation kerosene lost 1.75 percent during a week that ended August 1. And it was only the beginning – the diesel fuel and kerosene shed another 2.20 percent and 1.45 percent respectively by August 8. But the decline didn’t extend to retail prices for some reason.
Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) attacked five biggest oil companies, LUKOIL, Gazprom Neft, TNK-BP, Rosneft and Surgutneftegaz in the middle of July, blaming on them the abuse of dominant standing on the markets of aviation kerosene and diesel fuel. On August 6, FAS lashed out on all of them but for Surgutneftegaz for the failure to timely submit the required reports and threatened by persecution under the Code of Administrative Violation.
LUKOIL and Gazprom rebuffed they had provided all data in time, and Rosneft and TNK-BP specified they had submitted a portion by August 1 because the information volume was enormous.
“FAS had flooded the companies with inquiries and they apparently decided it would be better to quietly surrender instead of butting for long,” the market players speculate.
Another reason that brought the prices down was imposing the record high duty on oil export starting from August 1. The current amount is $495.9 per a ton vs. $398.1 per a ton. The exporters endeavor to set off losses on domestic market, directing flows for refining in Russia. As a result, the supply (mostly of diesel fuel) has materially grown here.
And last but not least, the decline in global prices for crude oil has also contributed to the drop in domestic prices for petroleum.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 13, 2008
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