'We are not experiencing any gasoline supply shortage at the moment. Our Perm- and Ufa-based suppliers deliver the gas regularly and without any interruptions,’ Oil-Ek’s Director Andrei Chetverkin said to UrBC. He explained that the only local company that did have some supply problems was Yekaterinburgnefteprodukt (Sibneft) that had been suffering from acute gas shortage since the beginning of the week.

'The suppliers promised to decrease the wholesale prices in January, so we might be able to decrease ours as well,’ Mr. Chetverkin added.

On average, the retail prices went up by 3.6% last week.

'We don’t expect things to get as bad as they are in Kamchatka, for instance, where shortage of AI 92 led to stations selling it at 35 RUR per liter,’ he said. Experts, however, are not sure what is going to happen next.