FAS filed a case against LUKOIL’s subsidiary due to markups on diesel fuel

The Nizhny Novgorod department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) opened a case against a subsidiary of LUKOIL (MOEX: LKOH) “LUKOIL-Tsentrnefteprodukt”. The reason was the identification of signs of violation of the law on the protection of competition in the fuel market in small wholesale, as well as the establishment of a monopolistically high selling price for diesel fuel.

“The Nizhny Novgorod OFAS filed a case against LLC LUKOIL-Tsentrnefteprodukt for establishing a monopolistically high price in the market for small-scale wholesale sales of diesel fuel and establishing various small-scale wholesale prices for diesel fuel in the Nizhny Novgorod region,” the service said in a statement (quoted from TASS).

As the FAS clarified, LUKOIL-Tsentrnefteprodukt raised the level of markup on diesel fuel in small wholesale from 9.2% to 17.7%. In addition, the company sold diesel fuel on the market in small wholesale to different persons at different prices.

“The Nizhny Novgorod OFAS continues to analyze the situation; if signs of violations are detected, antimonopoly response measures will be applied to participants in the petroleum products market,” the FAS noted.

September 21 government announced on the introduction of temporary restrictions on the export of motor gasoline and diesel fuel to stabilize the domestic market. On the initiation of the first antimonopoly cases based on the results of the FAS inspection of the petroleum products market reported September 29. Violations were detected in the Belgorod and Rostov regions, Krasnodar and Stavropol territories, as well as in Dagestan. In early October, the FAS sent a letter demanding that fuel prices be reduced to 32 more market players.

Read more in the Kommersant FM article. “FAS stopped by a gas station”.