OREANDA-NEWS. January 30, 2012. During the III International Forum: “Exchange and Non-Exchange Markets of Oil and Oil Products in the Russian Federation”, that took place in Moscow, the Working Group for researching prices for oil and oil products and methods of their functioning held its first meeting, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The meeting was chaired by Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) Andrey Tsyganov and a representative of Austrian Competition Authority, Rainer Kaltenbrunne.

The Heads and experts of competition authorities of Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Russia and Ukraine took part in the meeting of the Working Group.

Participants approved of the goals and objectives of the efforts of the Working Group, in particular, importance of discussing tools for monitoring and analysis wholesale and retail markets of oil and oil products, studying pricing issues for oil and oil products on domestic markets, including effects of global prices.

Participants exchanged opinions and experience of monitoring markets of oil and oil products, as well as experience of preventing violations of competition law on these markets in their countries. The Head of FAS Department for Control over Fuel-and-Energy Complex, Nadezhda Dianova, discussed Russian experience in this field with the foreign colleagues.

Participants of the meeting also discussed proposals regarding further joint activities that shall be exercised by the Group. Everybody agreed with FAS proposals to assign competition authorities – members of the Working Group – to coordinate a particular area of work to make it more productive, and appoint a contact person for each competition authority in order to achieve prompt cooperation within the Working Group.

Based on the outcome of the meeting, participants agreed upon the procedures for further activities of the Working Group.

Reference:

The Working Group for researching prices for oil and oil products and methods of their functioning was formed upon an initiative of FAS Russia and Austria’s Federal Competition Authority. In October 2011, in course of celebrating 20th anniversary of creating the antimonopoly authority of the Republic of Kazakhstan, representatives of the antimonopoly bodies of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Kazakhstan and Austria held a tri-lateral working meeting. At the meeting the parties discussed composition and the main efforts of the Working Group. Participants of the meeting decided to engage competition authorities of other countries in Europe and the CIS in activities of the Working Group and also organize the first meeting of the Working Group in Moscow.