OREANDA-NEWS. January 30, 2012. “FAS goal for the nearest two years is to form an exchange market mechanism for oil products pricing”, said Igor Artemyev at the III International Forum: “Exchange and Non-Exchange Markets of Oil and Oil Products in the Russian Federation”, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

According to Mr. Artemyev, the Forum gives extensive opportunities to all its participants, including FAS Russia, to share experience with foreign colleagues. “There is no need to “recreate the wheel”, and we should learn from the experience of western countries that have been already living according to market principles for many years. We should study their operations procedures that are very successful in practice”, emphasized the Head of the antimonopoly authority.

“In essence, all what happened in the past five years, what the Antimonopoly Service tried to do, concerns correct and incorrect pricing”, pointed out the Head of FAS Russia.

As Russian oil-and-gas sector is much monopolized, the Head of FAS said that “in the near future we should focus our efforts on three methods of fair market pricing: a system of non-exchange contracts, Netback policy and exchange trading”.

“We proposed that in the future the Government should reform the system of vertically-integrated companies, up to separating sales companies from vertically-integrated companies”, said Mr. Artemyev. “However, these are very radical measures.” According to the Head of the Antimonopoly Service, a more gentle measure can be considered when an oil company should not have more than 25% of all gasoline stations within the boundaries of a constituent territory of the Russian. As an example, Mr. Artemyev talked about the effect of the Law “On Trade” on trade networks.

“One of our main goal for the next two years is to form an exchange market mechanism of oil product pricing”, stated Igor Artemyev. The Head of FAS expressed his hope that through today’s consultations and exchanging opinions with professional community “we will choose the right strategy for our activities for the next 3-5 years”.