Experts with United Petroleum Consultants (UPECO), a consulting company, are not ruling out the possibility of stabilization of prices of petroleum products in late July-early August.
UPECO's Executive Director Serhii Kuiun announced this at a press conference at the press center of the Ukrainian News information agency.
According to Kuiun, prices of crude oil and the main types of petroleum products fell on the European market for the first time in a long period (prices ell by an average of 10%), reaching their lowest levels in two months.
"Prices are falling, and this is raising hopes that prices will stabilize in Ukraine, which imports 90% of the crude oil and petroleum products [it uses]. Let us hope that such a dynamic will continue or prices will stabilize at the level that we are seeing today, then we should feel a fall in the pressure on our purses in August," he said.
At the same time, he added that it was too early to draw any unequivocal conclusions about price stabilization because practice has repeatedly differed from the forecasts of experts this year because of the world market of petroleum products' high level of sensitivity to the statements and actions of politicians.
Moreover, according to Kuiun, leading experts, including international experts, see no long-term reasons for this fall in prices because demand for fuel is continuing to rise.
He added that the retail prices of petroleum products in Ukraine were among the lowest in Europe and the CIS.
According to him, retail prices are higher only in Russia and Belarus.
In particular, as of July 15 the lowest price of the A95 gasoline brand was USD 1.1 per liter in Russia while the cheapest fuel in Belarus cost USD 1 per liter, compared with USD 1.37 and 1.47 per liter, respectively, in Ukraine.
However, he stressed that when analyzing prices in these countries it should be remembered that Russia is one of the leading producers of crude oil in the world while Belarus largely lowers fuel prices artificially through government subsidies.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the volume wholesale prices of petroleum products have risen since the start of this year: an increase of 40.42% for the A76 and A80 gasoline brands, an increase of 38.20% for the A92 gasoline brand, an increase of 38.66% for the A95 gasoline, and an increase of 43.07% for diesel fuel.
To order an audiotape and/or transcript of the press conference, please contact Ukrainian News' press center by telephone (494-31-65) or email (centre@ukranews.com).
