The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia, the Federal Environmental, Engineering & Nuclear Supervision Agency, the Federal Agency on Technical Regulations and Metrology and 12 oil companies entered into agreement aimed among other things at stabilizing oil product market situation, “Kommersant” reports.
The state of the oil-refining industry in Russia is by and large worse than in Europe or America. This is stipulated by several reasons. Firstly, many of oil-refining plants which are in operation at present were built back in the Soviet Union times and have not been updated till very recently, as a result of which there is a very serious wear of fixed assets. Secondly, this happens due to the peculiarities of tax liabilities in the industry, which in the course of changes first stimulated crude oil export, and lately made oil products selling in Russia less attractive. This means that high oil prices and the peculiarities of tax legislation have recently made crude oil export more profitable than its refining with the aim of further export or selling in the domestic oil products market. Also, careful attention on the part of FAS and governmental actions on oil prices curbing has made selling in the domestic market less profitable for oil companies. For the sake of industry development it is necessary to introduce state programs which would stimulate investment into oil refining as well as to repudiate oil product prices regulation on the part of the government and FAS.
Метки: oil
