On November 17, at a meeting dedicated to protecting competition in the gasoline and diesel fuel markets, the state commissioner of the AMCU, Valery Polyukhovich, reported this.
Polyukhovich noted that even if there are objective reasons for the rise in fuel prices at retail, subjective factors should not be ruled out either.
“The Committee pays especially close attention to situations where prices for petroleum products rise simultaneously and systematically, and are also set at the same level by different market participants, as this may indicate anticompetitive concerted actions,” he emphasized.
In turn, market operators who participated in the meeting explained the rise in fuel prices in September-November 2017 by several reasons: an increase in quotations for oil and petroleum products on European exchanges; fluctuations in exchange rates; delays in fuel shipments and a shortage of railway tank cars for its transportation; an increase in operating and production costs for maintaining gas stations; as well as a decrease in the volume of gasoline and diesel fuel supplies from Belarus.
