Fuel crisis reaches Moscow as shortages spread across Russia

Andrii Muravskyi - 1 June, 15:41

A person refuels a car at a petrol station. Photo: Getty Images

A fuel crisis has been escalating in Russia amid continued Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries, with shortages of motor fuel similar to those previously reported in the temporarily occupied city of Sevastopol and Crimea now spreading to Russia's capital region.

Source: The Moscow Times, an independent Amsterdam-based news outlet; Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency Interfax

Quote: "In New Moscow, petrol stations have started putting up notices limiting petrol sales to 60 litres per person and diesel fuel to 100 litres. These fuel sale rules will remain in place 'until further notice', the notices indicate." [New Moscow is an area covering territories that were transferred to the Russian capital Moscow in 2012 in the course of the project to expand the territory of the city of Moscow.]

Details: Prior to this, the Russian-appointed authorities in Sevastopol initially limited petrol sales to 20 litres per person and introduced ration coupons for diesel fuel. They later reported a "temporary" shortage of AI-92 and AI-95 petrol.

In Crimea, petrol stations also started selling no more than 20 litres of AI-95 per person. Fuel sales limits were also introduced in other Russian-occupied oblasts of Ukraine, including Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk oblasts.

Fuel prices have also continued to rise at petrol stations in Moscow.

A significant increase in diesel prices persisted at Moscow petrol stations at the end of last week, while petrol also rose considerably in price, the Moscow Fuel Association reported.

The Moscow Fuel Association said the jump in retail prices was caused by higher fuel prices at petrol stations run by the private company NeftMagistral. Fuel prices also rose at petrol stations operated by vertically integrated oil companies.

Bloomberg estimates that in May, Ukraine set a record for the entire war by attacking Russian oil refineries 16 times during the month. More than 10 strikes also targeted oil pipelines, oil depots and ports.

Background:

On 23 May, Reuters reported that Russia had introduced fuel rationing for vehicles in Sevastopol in temporarily occupied Crimea, also at 20 litres per day.
Across temporarily occupied Crimea, the sale of A-95 petrol was limited to 20 litres per person per day.
The government of the Russian Federation has introduced a ban on aviation fuel exports from the country until 30 November.

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