FAS will forbid oil companies to sell oil products to their own structures on exchange

UFA, 19 September 2017. /Bashinform News Agency, Galiya Nabieva/. The Federal Antimonopoly Service plans to stop a scheme by which large oil companies sell petroleum products through the exchange to their own structures. According to the estimates of the agency, such transactions amount to 2 to 10% of monthly trades, Izvestia reports. The ban can increase the growth of exchange supplies, and in the long run reduce the average cost of fuel at auction.

"Such transactions are, in fact, fictitious and can hardly be considered as exchange trades. Once we finish discussing the amendments to our joint (with the Ministry of Energy) decree and approve it, it will give an increase in sales to the market by at least 10% and will restrain the cost of fuel from growth" the head of the FEC department FAS Dmitry Makhonin told Izvestia.

The corresponding amendment is still under discussion in the Ministry of Energy and will come into effect by the end of the year.

It is reported that oil companies are opposed to the FAS proposal and prepare negative conclusions. Since 2015, they have a hard constraint for minimum monthly sales on the exchange. For gasoline, it is at least 10% of the total fuel produced, and for the diesel - only 5%. According to the president of the Russian Fuel Union Eugeny Arkusha, the largest suppliers sell up to 20% of the total stock volume either to each other or to their daughter companies.