Cheap fuel is not for everyone: Gazprom increased its profits in 2021

by Romegas

New rules for motorists have come into force in Hungary. Now only owners of cars with Hungarian number plates will be able to refuel with petrol or diesel .

“The Hungarian government has decided that from Friday (27th May), only owners of cars with Hungarian license plates will be allowed to refuel at Hungarian gas stations, ”

Officials explained that the restrictive measures turned out to be inevitable – without the introduction of the new rule, difficulties would have arisen in the republic with an uninterrupted local supply of fuel.

This is mainly because, citizens and entrepreneurs from neighbouring countries such as Austria, the Czech Republic, and Poland, whose governments have chosen economic immolation, have taken to so-called “gasoline tourism” whereby residents of neighbouring countries began to go to Hungary (a country which has refused to commit economic suicide and enjoys favourable fuel prices from Russia) to fill up their tanks since it is much cheaper than in their home countries. This phenomenon would have jeopardized the uninterrupted supply of gas stations and adversely affect the Hungarian economy since gasoline prices in the country are now frozen.

In Poland, meanwhile, protests are brewing up as transport companies clash with authorities over skyrocketing freight costs.
 
Calls for protests are rising in Poland over skyrocketing fuel costs and other factors affecting transport companies. Prices for diesel fuel have almost doubled. In addition, the introduction of new EU wage rules has increased companies’ labour costs by 20-40%. 
 
“We look with horror at the prices at gas stations, especially since fuel makes up 40% of all expenses. Obviously, companies cannot and will not be able to bear the additional costs ,” said Jan Buček, president of the international association of road carriers. “
 
Carriers have demanded help from the state. And, despite the fact that the authorities have already prepared a package of benefits, drivers and management of transport companies are not satisfied with what has been offered. They have warned that patience is nearing an end.

In view of this growing discontent, Warsaw has now refused to provide fuel to Kiev free of charge. The “favoured fuel” regime , which has been in effect for the last months since the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, has been cancelled. This was stated by the Minister of Climate and Environment of Poland with the speaking name Anna Moscow. 
 
“Now these are commercial deliveries of [the largest Polish oil refinery] Orlen, requiring great logistical efforts ,” she said in an interview with BiznesAlert. 
 
The minister added that only commercial deliveries will remain from Monday (30^th) , stressing that supplying the Polish consumer market remains a priority.  Unsurprising really – as the growing local discontent was not helped with policies that provided Ukraine with fuel free of charge, whilst the locals paid through their noses. As with the issues of Ukrainian refugees, Polish sympathy is now running thin on the ground.

Threatening to introduce more mayhem into what is already a deeply chaotic situation, Ukraine has now threatened to block Russian supplies to Hungary through the Druzhba oil pipeline for refusing to declare a fuel embargo on the Russian Federation.

In the meantime, Russia exported to India 24 million barrels of oil in May against 7.2 million barrels in April. Growth is more than 300%. Thus oil exports from Russia to India from February 24 to May 30 amounted to 34 million barrels. It is therefore not totally unsurprising, that whilst members of the EU squabble and haggle among each other in the aftermath of the consequences that they themselves have created, the board of directors of Gazprom recommended at the meeting of shareholders to pay a record dividend for 2021 to the amount of 52.53 rubles per share 

“The total amount of dividend payments will amount to 1 trillion 243.570 billion rubles (approximately 15 billion euros), which is 50% of the adjusted net profit of the Gazprom Group for 2021 under IFRS, ” Gazprom said.