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|**Country E R**|**Pricing policy and strategy**|**Fuel supply conditions**|
|---|---|---|
||de la Inversión en Energía y Mineria, Supervisory Agency for<br>Investment in Energy and Mining) posts detailed retail prices by<br>location and company and the date of the last price change, but not<br>historical price data.||
|Philip-<br>pines<br>√|<br>**Pricing policy**: The downstream petroleum sector was deregulated<br>in 1998. The import duties on crude oil and petroleum products were<br>reduced from 3% to 0% by an executive order in Jun 2010. In Feb<br>2009, the Department of Energy asked oil companies to explain in<br>writing within 48 hours the justification for price increases, and<br>added that it was checking the dates of the acquisition of the supply,<br>the volume, the value, and the shipment date. On Oct 23, 2009,<br>government imposed price ceilings in response to devastating<br>typhoons, forcing oil companies to lower prices back to the Oct 15<br>level. This led to early closure of some filling stations. The ceilings<br>were lifted on Nov 16, on condition that the oil companies agree to<br>implement discounts and stagger future price increases. Under the<br>label “jump-starting” strategic reserves, the president ordered<br>Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corporation, which is<br>99.8% owned by government, to sell diesel at ₱2–3 (US$0.05–<br>0.07)/liter below the market level starting in Jul 2011.<br>**Price negotiation**: Government in 2003 negotiated voluntary diesel<br>price discounts with oil companies for transport operators, and there<br>were 803 filling stations offering discounts as of Dec 2012. The size<br>of the discount has varied over the years.<br>**Compensation**: In April 2011, an executive order established a<br>Public Transport Assistance Program and allocated ₱450 million<br>(US$10 million) for compensation using smart cards to registered<br>jeepney and three-wheel drivers. At ₱1,050 (US$24) per jeepney,<br>only 95,000 out of 150,000 cards printed for jeepneys were claimed,<br>enabling the government to offer an additional ₱1,200 (US$28) per<br>vehicle in 2012. Government abandoned a plan for a fuel subsidy<br>scheme for agriculture and fisheries in May 2011, citing difficulties<br>with beneficiary identification.<br>**Hedging**:Philippine Airlines reported fuel-price hedging losses<br>for the financial year ending in March 2009.<br>**Information**: The Department of Energy monitors both wholesale<br>and retail prices, and posts detailed current and historical data by<br>location and company as well as the location of each filling station<br>offering a diesel fuel discount on its Web site.|<br> <br> <br> <br>**Supply**: With closure of two refineries,<br>refining capacity has gone down, and in<br>addition the utilization rate is low at less<br>than 65%. Product imports are growing,<br>now accounting for half of consumption.<br>**Shortages**: LPG shortages were<br>experienced in Jan–Feb 2009, and again in<br>Sep 2009 when announcements by some<br>LPG suppliers of impending price increases<br>led to stockpiling and a temporary shortage.<br>Damage to a vital bridge by a typhoon in<br>Dec 2009 caused LPG shortages in Manila<br>and other provinces. Manila experienced<br>fuel shortage in Nov 2010 after government<br>shut down a leaking pipeline.<br>**Smuggling**: In 2009, citing a study, Petron<br>Corporation said that fuel smugglers were<br>controlling one-third of the petroleum<br>market, resulting in an annual government<br>revenue loss of ₱30–35 billion (US$630–<br>730 million). Government had earlier<br>charged a fishing company with illegally<br>importing more than two million liters of<br>diesel.|
|Russian<br>Federation<sup>√ √</sup>|<br> <sup>**Use of export tax and other means to lower prices**: Government</sup><br>uses export taxes on petroleum products and other means to<br>influence domestic fuel prices. In Feb 2011, Prime Minister Putin<br>ordered Fededral Antimonopoly Service to investigate any cases of<br>unjustified price increases, effectively lowering domestic prices, at<br>which point gasoline exports (typically making up 10% of total<br>production) began to increase. Faced with gasoline shortages on the<br>domestic market, government increased gasoline export tax to<br>US$408.30 a tonne (US$0.55/liter) in May 2011 and to US$415.80 a<br>tonne (US$0.56/liter) in Jun 2011, levels high enough to act as a de<br>facto export ban. Prior to this move, Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly<br>Service had found companies guilty of over-charging and fined<br>them. Government over the last several years has “recommended”<br>that oil companies sell diesel at a discount to farmers twice a year.<br>For the first agricultural season of 2012, the price discount offered<br>was 30%, up from 10% in 2010 and 2011. In 2012 government<br>reached an agreement with oil companies to keep gasoline prices at<br>the Dec 2011 level until the Mar 2012presidential elections,and|<br> <br>**Supply:**The refining industry in Russia has<br>struggled to meet tightening fuel<br>specifications. Its inability to meet Euro-3-<br>compliant fuel quality standards, which<br>came into effect in January 2011, prompted<br>many refineries to curb production or<br>increase exports, contributing to acute<br>gasoline shortages in many regions in early<br>2011. In response, Prime Minister Putin<br>waived the fuel quality standards on a<br>temporary basis while simultaneously<br>increasing the gasoline export tax sharply.<br>The timeline for fuel quality standards was<br>subsequently postponed for the third time<br>since 2008, delaying the ban on Euro-2-<br>compliant gasoline and diesel until the end<br>of 2012, or a full 13 years after Euro 3<br>standards came into effect in the European|