BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 8. Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov instructed to ensure control of transportation and distribution of fuels and lubricants for agriculture, refineries, storage facilities, filling stations in the regions of the country, Trend reports via the Kazakh government.
During the discussion of issues of providing the domestic market with fuel at the government meeting, Smailov stressed that the tense situation around fuels and lubricants has developed due to the lack of proper coordination between the government and the regional authorities.
According to him, there is no clear synchronization between the Ministry of Energy and KazMunayGas (KMG) company in terms of transportation and shipment of petrochemicals from oil refineries and the required volumes of petrochemicals in the regions.
Besides, Kazakhstan Railways company failed to ensure the timely delivery of oil tanks to the refineries and didn’t adjust the rolling stock delivery schedule, the official said.
"Despite the ban on export of gasoline and diesel fuel, these products were exported under the guise of other goods. For example, the export of heating oil increased by 11 times, meaning that the Ministry of Energy doesn’t properly control this," Smailov said.
Smailov stressed that due to the lack of a clear mechanism for determining the operators of preferential fuels and lubricants in the regions, conditions are being created for the selection of "privileged" companies. Moreover, the Ministry of Energy hasn’t set a limit on the cost of preferential fuels, so the price is formed at the operator's discretion.
“All these facts led to an artificial shortage of diesel fuel in the regions and an increase in prices,” he noted, adding that authorized persons of the Ministry of Energy, KMG, Petrosun LLP and Atyrau Refinery were brought to strict disciplinary responsibility.
Smailov instructed to legally regulate the issues of providing agricultural producers with preferential fuels and lubricants with the establishment of the ceiling amount of the margin and the final cost.
"Priority should be given to companies with filling stations in regions and remote settlements," he said.