Fuel prices in Ukraine up UAH 6 per liter, no supply disruptions anticipated - Naftogaz CEO

MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax) - Retail fuel prices in Ukraine have gone up UAH 6 per liter on average amid the global price surge caused by the situation in Iran, Ukrainian media quoted Sergei Koretsky, CEO of Ukraine's Naftogaz, as saying at a briefing in Kiev.

"This is not just Ukraine's problem but a European and I would even say global one. But the price at filling stations hasn't gone up by UAH 10, that's not true. Indicatively it's UAH 6," he said.

Koretsky said the key task for Ukraine, as for all European countries in the global market conditions that have arisen, is to avoid any disruptions to supplies of light petroleum products.

Koretsky said Ukrnafta, as a state-owned company, would act as a kind of weather vane in the market to keep prices fair during the crisis shock period. The company will lower any markup to a minimum, enough to cover expenses, in order to navigate this difficult period smoothly.

He said the panic that caused fuel sales to surge would subside and would not cause difficulties with keeping the market supplied.

Fuel prices at gas stations largely stopped rising on March 5 after jumping UAH 2-3 per liter on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to media monitoring of data on websites and in network apps.

Ukrnafta, for example, raised prices for all types of fuel except gas by UAH 1 per liter on Thursday morning. Compared to March 2, prices for A-95 rose by UAH 5 per liter overall, which was seen at other networks on Wednesday.

Overall, as a result of the gradual increase, premium A-95 increased by UAH 4-6 per liter. The Socar chain put prices up by just over UAH 6/liter. Ukrnafta and UPG each increased them by UAH 5/liter, while OKKO and WOG each raised them by UAH 4. The same situation can be seen with diesel fuel. Gas prices in the monitored networks rose by UAH 2 per liter, while UPG went up slightly less, by UAH 1.7.