Rosneft was pinched for Irkutsk

FAS found the state-owned company guilty of the regional fuel crisis

The Federal Antimonopoly Service continues to expose the largest oil companies and finally made a decision regarding gasoline prices in the Irkutsk region, which rose in June to a record level for the country - more than 33 rubles. per liter AI-92. The FAS blamed this situation on the state company Rosneft, which is a monopolist in the Irkutsk region (the share of its products in the region is 90%). The company, FAS believes, violated the law “On the Protection of Competition” by creating unequal conditions for wholesale gasoline buyers, thereby causing a shortage of fuel at gas stations that do not belong to it and a sharp rise in prices. Gasoline was sold at Rosneft gas stations, but prices also increased significantly. This turned out to be especially sensitive in the days when an accident occurred at the Angarsk Petrochemical Plant (ANHK, part of Rosneft). The company claims that the FAS orders are illegal and promises to appeal them. According to a Vremya Novostey source close to Rosneft, the service’s claims are a “shaking of the air”: “The company did not violate anything, the FAS is simply trying to report to management and demonstrate that it is doing something.”

Gasoline prices in the Irkutsk region have been at a high level for a long time. Now a liter of the most popular gasoline AI-92 costs on average 29.5 rubles, and AI-95 costs 31 rubles. In June, the authorities drew attention to the situation in the region. The acting governor of the region, Igor Esipovsky, realizing that he would not be able to cope with the situation on his own, went to Moscow for help, where he initiated a special meeting with the government, at which he spoke about the region’s difficult relations with Rosneft. In particular, he stated that the company did not inform the regional administration about technical problems at ANKhK, due to which the region was actually on the verge of a fuel crisis.

Mr. Esipovsky tried to negotiate with Rosneft President Sergei Bogdanchikov so that the subsidiary of the state-owned company Irkutsknefteproduct, which owns the largest retail network of gas stations, would continue to sell fuel freely and not raise prices. However, the situation moved forward only after Mr. Esipovsky spoke about it in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who also holds the post of Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rosneft. After the meeting, Mr. Sechin instructed the head of the FAS, Igor Artemyev, and Mr. Bogdanchikov to deal with pricing in the Irkutsk region.

According to the FAS, which conducted the investigation for more than a month, Rosneft was guilty. The company received an order to “bring the rules for the sale of petroleum products on the domestic market into compliance with the law by October 25, eliminating conditions of discrimination against business entities.” “First of all, we were alarmed by the fact that the company determined unequal conditions for the sale of goods for different categories of buyers,” reports the OFAS for the Irkutsk region. Irkutsknefteprodukt received gasoline on the basis of a long-term contract, and all other wholesale buyers were forced to participate in monthly tenders. In addition, the FAS believes that the company also benefited from the accident at ANKhK: “Due to force majeure, the supply of gasoline from ANKhK to all tender participants was stopped. Of the wholesalers with goods, there was only one left - “Irkutsknefteprodukt”, which provided fuel only to its gas stations; the supply of gasoline to all “outsiders” was limited. “Rosneft, together with its satellite Irkutsknefteprodukt, only benefited economically from the retail price boom, without being in any way responsible for the “fuel disturbance” to its partners,” the FAS states.

However, the company does not yet intend to comply with the requirements. Rosneft told Vremya Novostey yesterday that they would appeal the FAS decision: “We do not agree with the service’s instructions, so we will soon appeal to the arbitration court so that it recognizes them as illegal.” In addition, Rosneft is perplexed why the antimonopoly agency linked the accident at ANKhK with gasoline prices. “The ANKhK stop has nothing to do with high gasoline prices. It’s hard to say why the FAS in the Irkutsk region suddenly became interested in this,” the company said.

Kirill MELNIKOV