The government has taken the first step towards rolling back restrictions at gas stations. According to RBC, citing industry sources, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, following a meeting on July 13, recommended that the Ministry of Energy and oil companies work on lifting limits on gasoline sales below 50 liters per person. Concurrently, agencies have been instructed to develop a mechanism to prevent circumvention of restrictions by gas station personnel.
The recommendation concerns the strictest of the existing restrictions. At the height of the crisis, which affected up to 80 regions, some gas stations sold only 20–30 liters per person. Now, as a source in the Deputy Prime Minister's office clarified, the discussion is about the possibility of increasing limits as the fuel market becomes saturated.
Experts interviewed by RBC believe that easing the limits is primarily a signal. Sergey Tereshkin, CEO of the Open Oil Market petroleum products marketplace, compared it to the Central Bank's work on reducing inflation expectations: the very fact of discussing the abolition of restrictions should calm motorists and curb speculative demand.
However, the fundamental situation remains fragile. According to Platts, refineries with a total capacity of 40 million tons, which have completed scheduled and emergency repairs, have already returned to exchange trading. But plants with another 45 million tons of processing capacity are still out of the market, and their return will determine whether the easing of limits becomes permanent or temporary.
Read more on the topic:
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