Anatoly Golomolzin, deputy head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service
Photo: Sergey Mikheev
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Regional Fuel Monopolies Restricted
After taking on construction monopolies, the Federal Antimonopoly Service has turned its attention to oil companies that have regional monopolies over fuel. The agency has drafted amendments to the Land Code prohibiting the construction of automobile filling stations for oil companies that control more than 35 percent of the regional market. The FAS expects the new laws to take effect next year and to demonopolize retail petroleum product sales gradually.
The FAS considers only Moscow and St. Petersburg completely free of monopolization on that market. Nationally, according to deputy chairman of the FAS Anatoly Golomolzin, the FAS considers the market split in half. Half of sales are made by independent filling station and half are made by vertically monopolized integrated oil companies that dominate on the retail market and on the wholesale market.
The most common violation of antimonopoly standards is “Misuse of Monopolistic Position.” That is, for example, when a company sells its own stations gasoline more cheaply than it sells it to other stations. Golomolzin said that a commodities exchange system of fuel trading would remedy that situation. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov is expected to sign a resolution creating such an exchange in the near future. The creation of such an exchange has been under discussion since the late 1990s.
The Russian Fuel Union supports the amendments to the Land Code. “Only that can shield against the uncontrolled expansion of the influence of oil companies in a number of regions,” commented union deputy chairman Grigory Gordienko.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 06, 2007
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