Russian oil companies addressed themselves to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov to protect their businesses in Ukraine, after the Ukrainian government head Yulia Timoshenko accused Lukoil, TNK-BP and Tatneft of conspiring to raise gasoline prices, Gazeta.ru reported.
She said that companies control over 60 percent of the local fuel market. Several days ago Ukrainian authorities issued an order forbidding oil companies to sell gasoline and other kinds of fuel for prices above those determined by the government.
On Tuesday, April 19, Ukraine?s Anti-Monopoly Committee opened a case into a conspiracy by Russian oil companies. If the officials prove that the Russian companies broke the law, they will be fined 10 percent of their 2004 earnings. Since these earnings were considerable, each company would have to pay tens of millions of dollars.
This year, the three companies promised to deliver 600,000 tons of diesel fuel to Ukrainian farms at $460 per ton (which is $100 below the top price in the country), but Ukrainian officials have not stopped their crusade against the Russian majors. This has forced the oil companies to resort to emergency measures: TNK-BP has halted the sale of gasoline at its filling stations in Ukraine and the other companies have promised to do the same.
However, the oil majors do not believe their actions will have any effect. Yesterday Lukoil, TNK-BP, Tatneft and Alliance Group sent a letter to the Russian prime minister, asking him to protect them at his forthcoming talks with his Ukrainian counterpart. The PMs were supposed to meet last Friday, April 15, but Tymoshenko postponed her visit to Moscow and the new timeframe has not been approved yet.
