By summer, petrol in Russia will rise 10% in price

Oil products market experts are predicting a 10% rise in retail petrol prices by the summer of this year. You can't help but marvel at the peculiar nature of Russian pricing in the fuel sector. While world oil prices fall, the price of domestic petrol stays put. Experts reckon it's overpriced in Russia by 15-20%. But the moment petrol prices tick up even slightly, new price tags with bigger numbers appear at Russian filling stations right away. This issue is actively discussed by internet users across various social networks, including via the ICQ 6 instant messenger.

Right now world oil prices are showing a steady upward trend. As summer approaches, the usual seasonal factors will kick in: more freight traffic, trips to the dacha and the mass holiday season. These will push up demand for petrol. On top of that, monopolists keep cranking petrol prices up. If you've got ICQ installed free on your phone, with mobile internet hooked up to it, chatting with acquaintances from other regions, you might be surprised to discover an odd fact: fuel prices already differ significantly even between neighbouring regions of the Russian Federation. The Federal Antimonopoly Service tries to keep a lid on monopolists who deliberately inflate prices. Oil companies are periodically hit with fines. However, as practice shows, these measures are clearly not enough today. In the first quarter of 2010 alone, the wholesale price of AI-95 petrol had already climbed 15%, and AI-92 by 11%. The FAS has sent the Russian government a proposal to introduce a single pricing formula that could bring clarity to retail petrol pricing.

The new technical regulation will also help push up the price of petrol by summer. To comply with it, oil refineries will have to undergo reconstruction. And that will inevitably trigger a fuel shortage during the period of peak seasonal consumption. That, in turn, will let the monopoly companies raise petrol prices. Some comfort in this situation can be found in the fact that after the reconstruction, the quality of Russian petrol will improve significantly. But will the price come down? Car owners have their doubts, and those with a sense of humour are already setting up funny "petrol"-themed ICQ and QIP statuses. Sadly, Russia's troubles aren't just "fools and bad roads" — there's also unjustifiably expensive petrol.