Russian oil companies will stop exporting oil products in May to service the internal market, Russian Deputy Energy Minister Sergey Kudryashov said. The Energy Ministry later clarified that the measure only concerns petrol, RIA Novosti reports.
Many Russian regions have been facing problems with petrol such as rising prices, lack of fuel and high demand. Altay Region was the first to suffer from such problems. It was followed by Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Murmansk, Saint-Petersburg, Sakhalin, Yaroslavl, Krasnodar. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office blamed oil companies for secret deals. The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service started mass inspections at oil companies.
Kudryashov said that Russia exported 1 million tons of oil products in the first four months of 2011. 3 million tons were exported in 2010.
One of the main reasons for the situation is that independent traders failed to operate on the electronic terminal of the exchange market. The main goals for the near future are to teach them to operate on electronic terminals and increase fuel supplies.
The Energy Ministry said that only petrol exports will be banned in May.
