Rosneft chief Igor Sechin sent Vladimir Putin a letter in late May proposing measures to stabilize the fuel market amid what Kommersant described as an “unprecedented number of damages” to Russian oil refineries. Putin then instructed Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak to review the initiatives and report back.
Rosneft’s proposals
Sechin suggested temporarily suspending mandatory exchange-sale quotas for gasoline and diesel until refining capacity is restored. In his view, up to 80% of fuel buyers on the exchange are intermediaries who resell petroleum products and make additional profit.
He also proposed requiring oil companies to send at least 30% of extracted crude for domestic refining, giving end consumers priority access to fuel purchases on the exchange, and creating a mechanism to compensate losses from fuel imports.
Government response
According to Kommersant, some of these ideas are already being discussed by the government. In June, the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the Energy Ministry prepared a draft measure to reduce the mandatory exchange-sale quota for gasoline from 15% to 10%. The newspaper’s sources said a similar decision may also be taken for diesel fuel.
Regional restrictions
Amid drone attacks and refinery damage, several Russian regions introduced fuel-sale restrictions in June. In the Bryansk region, where acting governor Yegor Kovalchuk acknowledged a slight rise in gasoline prices at some chain operators, authorities banned the sale of fuel into containers to prevent an “artificial shortage.”
The Kursk region also banned fuel sales into canisters. Governor Alexander Khinshtein said:
“I understand residents’ concerns, but panic only worsens the situation because it provokes shortages.”
In the Kurgan region, filling stations in populated areas may now sell no more than 40 liters of gasoline and 80 liters of diesel per vehicle, while on highways the limit is up to 40 liters of gasoline and 200 liters of diesel. Fuel sales into canisters were also banned there. In Adygea, regional head Murat Kumpilov said restrictions had been introduced on the volume of refueling for passenger cars because of elevated, in some cases panic-driven demand, though he did not specify the exact limits.