FAS brings action against Rosneft, Bashneft, Lukoil for manipulation on oil exchange, new cases possible
MOSCOW. Nov 5 (Interfax) - Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) has brought action against OJSC Bashneft , OJSC Rosneft , OJSC Lukoil and LLC Lukoil-Rezervnefteprodukt on grounds of manipulation on the oil product exchange, the service said in a statement on its website.
More specifically, this concerns part 4 of article 11 on protecting competition, the FAS said.
The FAS does not rule out opening new cases. "Perhaps there will be others," the head of the fuel and energy sector department at the FAS, Dmitry Makhonin, is quoted in the statement as saying.
The FAS established during analysis of oil product market monitoring that in the January-September 2014 period in wholesale trading off the exchange, prices for Ai-92 and Ai-95 gasoline rose about 20%. The price increase in the same segment on the exchange over the same period was an increase of 34% for Ai-92 and 35% for Ai-95.
"The analysis showed that one of the causes of the wholesale price growth in automotive gasoline is growth in exchange prices on St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange (SPIMEX)," the FAS statement says.
In order to identify the source of gasoline price increases, the FAS examined the register of all exchange trading in oil products on SPIMEX's electronic trading system in the nine months.
"Analysis of the exchange's register for the Ufa group of refineries showed a significant number of one-second deals for sale on the part of Bashneft and purchase on the part of Rosneft and Lukoil-Reservenefteprodukt. Analysis of the nature of these deals enabled the FAS to conclude that manipulation of exchange trading was potentially carried out by the above-mentioned companies," the FAS said.
"During examination of the anti-monopoly case, we intend to get to the bottom of this once and for all," Makhonin said.
The FAS also reports that gasoline prices currently are trending downward in the exchange segment of wholesale trade and a slowing in the pace of growth of retail prices for gasoline.