OREANDA-NEWS  Disruptions with gasoline were recorded in more than 10 regions of Russia. The Izvestia newspaper reports on the intensifying fuel crisis with reference to market participants.

Previously, problems were noted in the Far East and in the Saratov region, but now fuel shortages are also recorded in the Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov, Ryazan regions and in the Crimea. Independent gas stations complain that some refineries have not shipped 92nd and 95th gasoline for several weeks, which is why some gas stations have to be closed.

"The shortage of high-octane gasoline is due to a systemic imbalance between production capacity and existing demand, seasonal factors and a number of other reasons. Information is being received about supply disruptions at gas stations in a number of regions, which may lead, among other things, to the closure of gas stations," Pavel Bazhenov, president of the Independent Fuel Union, told Izvestia. According to Dmitry Tortev, a member of the expert council of the State Duma Committee for the Protection of Competition, at first the problem of fuel shortage was local, but now more and more regions are facing shortages, from the most remote to the European part of Russia. At the same time, the problem concerns independent gas stations — those that do not have access to their own production facilities and storage facilities, and which are forced to buy fuel on the stock exchange.