ANDREY TSARIKOVSKIY: MEASURES TO MAINTAIN STABILITY OF OIL PRODUCTS MARKET HAVE WORKED

Stats-Secretary – Deputy Head of the FAS Russia Andrey Tsarikovskiy made a working visit to the Irkutsk region

He opened the meeting on the topic of providing fuel and energy resources of the Irkutsk region and issues related to the purchase of motor fuel at stock exchanges.

Andrey Tsarikovskiy reminded the participants of the event about the recent situation of a significant drop in demand for petroleum products during the coronavirus pandemic, which led to lower prices in the wholesale segment and the adoption of a number of decisions in order to support the oil industry.

However, after leaving the self-isolation regime, fuel consumption sharply recovered almost to the “pre-pandemic” level, and in the short term supply did not keep up with demand, which led to a temporary increase in wholesale prices.

At the same time, within the framework of daily meetings of the Exchange Committee and joint work with the Ministry of Energy, market participants quickly restored the supply at a sufficient level.

“These decisions allowed to stabilize the situation and currently wholesale prices for petroleum products are falling,” said Deputy Head of the FAS Russia.

"The FAS and the Ministry of Energy agreed on the need to increase the mandatory level of sales of petroleum products to 11% for gasoline and 7.5% for diesel fuel,” he added. “The implementation of these standards will fill the stock market with goods”.

The relevant document is currently undergoing interagency approval.

“We have also initiated amendments to Government decree No. 733 in terms of fixing the minimum trading volumes not only for dominant companies, but also for others with the extension of the provisions of uniformity and regularity of trading on the stock exchange,” commented Armen Khanyan, Head of the Department for Regulation over Fuel-and-Energy Complex of the FAS Russia.

“Now we can say that the measures taken to maintain stability with the growth of demand have worked and contribute to the further development of the market and exchange trading,” concluded Andrey Tsarikovskiy.