Evaluation of the Concentration on Gasoline Retail Market in Russia

Dmitry S. Gordeev – Senior Researcher of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; Senior Researcher of the Institute of International Economics and Finance, Russian Foreign Trade Academy, Candidate of Economic Sciences (Moscow, Russia). E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Ekaterina A. Kosukhina – Younger Researcher of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; Postgraduate Student of the Gaidar Institute (Moscow, Russia). E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Russian retail gasoline market is highly concentrated. Vertically integrated oil companies are able to discriminate independent petroleum stations. They increase prices for motor fuels for independent companies and decrease for subsidiaries. Higher costs on fuels for independent companies reduce their ability to compete. It results in either closing of such independent companies or their takeover by vertically integrated oil companies. Moreover, few big companies can act like a cartel, reducing economic potential of Russian Federation. In this paper concentration of gasoline retail market in Russian regions is evaluated. Gasoline prices in regions are shown to be correlated with market concentration.

The article was written on the basis of the RANEPA state assignment research programme.

Key words: petroleum products, oil products, vertically integrated oil companies, competition, concentration.