VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Mongolia, Russia’s long-term trading partner, is feeling the pinch of fuel shortages in its neighbour, the dominant supplier of gasoline and diesel, a Mongolian official told Reuters.
Media and Reuters witnesses reported long queues at petrol stations across the nation, which put curbs on sales of the fuel last month.
The gasoline and diesel shortages have spilled over from Russia, where Ukrainian drone attacks on oil refineries and high seasonal demand led to a fuel crunch.
“I know about the problem in Russia. However, the fuel price is rising for Mongolia,” Bolorchuluun Tsendgombo, the director of the policy and planning department in Mongolia’s food ministry, told Reuters.
Prices had risen to nearly $1.5 to $2 a litre, he added, from the rate during the spring, of roughly a dollar per litre, he added.
Russia’s export ban on gasoline and diesel exempts countries, such as Mongolia, with which it has inter-governmental pacts on fuel supplies.
Traders said Russian diesel fuel supplies to Mongolia rose by 7% to 1,05 million metric tons between January and July. Gasoline exports increased to 515,000 tons from 450,000 tons, while supplies of jet fuel fell 40% to 32,000 tonnes.
In July alone, Russia’s motor fuel exports to Mongolia declined to 173,000 tons from 186,400 tons in June.
Mongolia may reduce imports of Russian grain due to a bigger expected harvest, after buying about 100,000 tons of its wheat last year, Tsendgombo added in remarks on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
On Wednesday President Vladimir Putin met Mongolian Prime Minister Nyam-Osoryn Uchral in the Russian far eastern city, hailing “traditional, friendly and neighbourly” ties as having now reached the level of a comprehensive strategic partnership.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Olesya Astakhova; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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