OREANDA-NEWS. September 24, 2012. FAS has received information that vertically-integrated oil companies reduced the amount of oil products sold through exchange, which does not allow to achieve the liquidity level necessary to form objective market prices, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

FAS also possesses information that significant volumes of oil products are sold through exchange to the persons who are members of groups of vertically-integrated oil companies, and the price of such transactions is below the price offers of independent buyers.

Selling large volumes of oil products through single transactions at an exchange cannot satisfy the demand from independent participants. According to FAS Russia, this situation results in panic demand for oil products and soaring prices at exchange trading.

Therefore, FAS is currently verifying the above facts.

In 2011, FAS inspected three commodity exchanges – “SPIMEX” CJSC (“St Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange), “MMTB” OJSC (“Moscow International Commodities and Power Exchange) (formerly “MBNK” - “Interregional Exchange of the Oil-and-Gas Complex” Non-Commercial Partnership) and “St Petersburg” Exchange” CJSC. Upon the inspection findings, FAS established that vertically-integrated oil companies were selling oil products at commodity exchanges, with non-uniform distribution of the volume of products across trading sessions within a month. The vertically-integrated oil companies also tend to conclude large-volume “seconds” and two-sided deals, which does not allow obtaining market quotations for oil products.

FAS has used the inspection findings investigating the “third wave” of cases against vertically-integrated oil companies. The findings also helped devise the main principles of fair pricing at exchange trading for sale of products by dominant economic entities as well as to introduce relevant changes and amendments to Article 6 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.