Gasoline is available at only 28% of gas stations in Russia (down from 41% last week)
Gasoline and diesel as of August 16 were available only at 28.1% of Russian gas stations, follows from the data of the GdeBENZ service, which was analyzed by Izvestia. A week earlier, fuel was available at 41% of gas stations. GdeBENZ is a user service: information about the availability of fuel, queues and restrictions at specific gas stations is added to it by the drivers themselves.
According to the service, over the week, the availability of gasoline and diesel decreased in the Volgograd, Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Voronezh, Samara, Penza, Saratov, Lipetsk and Rostov regions, as well as in Tatarstan. On August 17, Izvestia checked 21 gas stations in Moscow and the Moscow region: AI-92 was at seven of them, AI-95 at six, AI-98 at five. Diesel fuel was also not available at all gas stations. At the same time, a source of The Insider said that the other day, when driving a car from the north-east of Moscow towards the region, he did not come across a single gas station where gasoline was available.
A new wave of fuel shortages began in Russia in August after the authorities reported stabilization of the situation at the end of July. During the week from August 10 to 15, at least six regions returned or tightened restrictions on the sale of gasoline. In the Kaluga, Lipetsk and Orenburg regions, in particular, they introduced refueling of cars on even and odd days, depending on the number of the car, in a number of regions there are restrictions on the amount of fuel in one hand.
The fuel crisis has been going on in Russia since the end of May and is primarily associated with the consequences of a series of Ukrainian attacks on oil refineries. During the spring and summer, at least 16 Russian refineries, including Volgograd, Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Omsk, Moscow, Saratov and Syzran, completely or partially stopped refining. According to Reuters, by July 10, gasoline production in Russia provided only about 65% of seasonal demand: the daily deficit was estimated at 40-45 thousand tons with consumption of 115-120 thousand tons. In July, some enterprises began to return to work, but refineries with a total capacity of more than 45 million tons of oil per year by July 20 had not yet resumed fuel sales on the St. Petersburg Exchange.
By the end of July, the situation began to improve, the regional authorities began to lift restrictions, and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak announced the stabilization of the fuel balance. However, in August, the crisis escalated again after new attacks and emergency shutdowns of refineries against the backdrop of traditionally high summer demand. In particular, on August 11, after a drone strike, the Orsk refinery completely stopped. The authorities of the Orenburg region said that the restoration of damaged imported equipment could take up to 6 months.
The government, in response to Ukrainian attacks on refineries, banned fuel exports, softened environmental requirements for gasoline, introduced measures to stimulate imports and began importing gasoline from abroad. The first batch of gasoline from India of about 42 thousand tons arrived in Murmansk in early August, but its delivery to the domestic market was delayed due to a dispute over the price.
Source: Insider https://archive.is/gHBiq
