Ukraine's Anti-Monopoly Committee opened a case into collusion by the Russian oil companies yesterday. If the officials prove that the Russian companies broke the law, they will be fined 10% of their 2004 earnings. Since these were considerable, each will have to pay tens of millions of dollars.
This year, the three companies promised to deliver 600,000 metric 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 Alyans Group sent a letter to the Russian premier, asking him to protect them at his forthcoming talks with his Ukrainian counterpart. The premiers were to meet last Friday but Timoshenko postponed her visit to Moscow and the new timeframe has not been approved yet.
Yevgeny Suvorov, chief analyst at Zenit bank, thinks the oil companies should not expect Fradkov to solve their problems. But the companies' situation is not hopeless. The Ukrainian government prohibited the export of oil this year. The ban includes diesel and engine fuel, but only for April-May and August-September. The oil companies can use this loophole to transport petrochemicals out of the country.
