For oil workers, the minimum standard for fuel sales on the stock exchange will be raised

The Russian government intends to increase the standard for mandatory fuel sales for refineries on the St. Petersburg International Trading Exchange commodity exchange. Three sources familiar with the discussion of the initiative told Vedomosti about this. This is one of the measures that will be taken to stabilize the situation with prices for gasoline and diesel fuel in the domestic market. For gasoline, the standard will be increased by 2 percentage points. up to 15% of total production, for diesel – by 3 percentage points. and will be 12.5%.

According to the interlocutors, the corresponding draft resolution has already been prepared by the FAS and submitted to the government for approval. One of the sources who has seen the draft resolution claims that the document does not yet have an effective date. Measures need to be taken urgently, so by a special government decision it can start working not with a monthly lag, but upon publication, he explains.

Vedomosti sent a request to the government and the Federal Antimonopoly Service.

The previous increase in the standard for sales of gasoline and diesel fuel at St. Petersburg International Trading Exchange was approved by the government in August and came into force on September 1. The minimum share of gasoline sales on the exchange was increased from 12% to 13% of total production, diesel fuel – from 8.5% to 9.5%.

This is one of the measures that is designed to stabilize prices at the wholesale level, which should also reduce them in small wholesale, and then in retail. In August, the consumer price index for gasoline (reflecting dynamics in retail), according to Rosstat, increased by 7.4% compared to December last year, for diesel fuel – by 4.7%. At the same time, inflation since the beginning of the year amounted to 5.15%. Retail prices are being put under pressure by large wholesalers, where the price of fuel has been growing exponentially since the summer, and in the fall it has repeatedly reached its absolute maximum. Thus, the cost of AI-92 in mid-September at St. Petersburg International Trading Company reached a historical peak of 75,508 rubles/t, AI-95 rose in price to 76,876 rubles/t, diesel exceeded the mark of 75,000 rubles/t.

The government took radical measures in the form of a complete ban on the export of diesel fuel and gasoline from the country, which came into force on September 21 after unsuccessful discussions with the oil industry. This smoothed out the situation somewhat, bringing down wholesale prices and allowing gas stations to turn a profit – before this, the margin of gas stations was negative (Vedomosti wrote about this on September 7). As a result, the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel at gas stations for the week from September 25 to October 1 is also decreased for the first time since spring of this year. According to Rosstat, a liter of AI-92 fell in price over the week by 0.4% to 51.4 rubles, and AI-95 by 0.5% to 56.2 rubles. The price of diesel fuel decreased by 0.1% to 64.9 rubles/liter.

In turn, the FAS began inspections of companies involved in the production and sale of fuel in the southern regions of Russia. In the Belgorod region, the service suspected of inflating prices when selling fuel from oil depots to the Oskolneftesnab company (owns an oil depot and a network of gas stations), in the Rostov region – Gazpromneft – Regional Sales, in the Stavropol region – Goodwill-A and Realgram (both engaged in the wholesale sale of fuel).

According to Vedomosti sources, the government is also currently discussing an increase in the protective export duty on petroleum products for resellers by 2.5 times to 50,000 rubles/t, a partial return of diesel exports through pipelines, as well as an increase in payments for dampers (compensation for refineries for supplying the domestic market with fuel at prices lower than export prices), which have halved since September due to a reduction factor of 0.5 in the calculation formula. Relevant decisions, including increasing exchange sales standards, may be officially announced as early as October 6, says one of the interlocutors.