‘The wholesale combustive-lubricating supplies prices have been artificially increased by the producers,’ says Director of Combustive-Lubricating Supplies Department of Computer Ltd. (part of Tatneft filling stations network) Evgeniy Yanenko.

‘The prices went up after more fuel had come to be used due to the cold weather. Refineries normally do this to increase their profits, but if one discards the cold-weather factor, the retail prices are not supposed to go up until February,’ Mr Yanenko reports.

The data presented by courtesy of Kortes information agency indicate that Russian wholesale diesel oil prices increased by an average of 2% at the beginning of 2006, which gave us 13,778 RUR per ton. The A-80 petrol became 2.33% more expensive, reaching the price of 14,079 RUR per ton. AI-92 and AI-95 now cost 16,108 (an increase of 2.02%) and 17,326 (an increase of 0.26%) RUR per ton, respectively. Yet Kortes Analyst Lyudmila Lurie believes it’s early times yet to speak of a trend as such since only a number of refineries had their prices go up. LUKOIL refineries, for instance, as well as the ones belonging to Rosneft haven’t announced any increase in prices yet. However, according to Vedomosti newspaper, the refineries in Bashkiria are now selling their petrol at 500 RUR to 800 RUR per ton more expensively, with the corresponding increases for TNK-BP, Refinery of Omsk and Refinery of Moscow being 200 RUR to 100 RUR per ton, 400 RUR to 650 RUR per ton and 200 RUR to 600 RUR per ton, respectively.