Gasoline shortages begin to hit the Murmansk region

“Production has plummeted … the refineries aren’t shipping,” said Maksim Belov, a former politician who now owns the Evecta petrol station chain on the Kola Peninsula.

In a post on VKontakte, Belov said petrol had not been available on the market in the required quantities for the past week.

“In fact, we haven’t been able to find any at all. The refineries aren’t shipping. When fuel does appear, the price is so high that transporting it north no longer makes economic sense,” he said.

In addition to newly acquired pumps in Alakurtti, near Russia’s border with Finland, Evecta operates five petrol stations across the region — in Pechenga, Lovozero, Apatity, Kirovsk and Teriberka.

According to Russian Telegram channels, authorities have imposed restrictions on petrol sales because of fuel supply disruptions following strikes on Russian oil refineries. Fuel production in April fell to its lowest level in 17 years. Since then, Ukrainian drones have targeted several refineries in central Russia, forcing some facilities to reduce output or suspend production entirely.

Over the past week, drones have reportedly targeted the Slavneft-YANOS refinery in Yaroslavl, the Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez refinery in Kstovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region, and a refinery in Ryazan.

According to Reuters, the combined refining capacity of plants that have fully or partially suspended operations exceeds 83 million tonnes per year, or around 238,000 tonnes per day. That represents roughly a quarter of Russia’s total oil refining capacity.

Meanwhile, wholesale petrol prices have reached record highs. Gasoline sales are increasingly becoming a loss-making business, especially in faraway regions with high prices on transport. 

Belov said it now costs more to purchase and transport petrol to Murmansk than he can sell it for.

“We’ll have to gradually close stations,” he said, adding that other smaller chains are also struggling.

“We have enough supplies for a few days. Today or tomorrow we’ll run out of fuel in Alakurtti, and then stocks at our other stations will gradually be exhausted over the next week. We apologise in advance for this. This was not our choice, and we are truly sorry. We are doing everything we can. But the situation is, by its very nature, pure force majeure,” Belov said.

To address domestic shortages and rising prices, Russia has maintained a ban on petrol exports from April until the end of July, according to The Moscow Times.