The Competition Agency has published an interim report on fuel market monitoring. According to the document, the fuel market in Georgia is assessed as сompetitive. In the same report, the agency calls on oil companies to refrain from announcing price increases/decreases in advance.
"The agency considers and addresses the economic agents operating on the market with a recommendation - to refrain from specifying future changes in fuel prices, regardless of whether these statements are based on current processes on the international market.
Public announcement that the price will change by a specific figure - represents additional transparency of the market and may include sensitive data. In the event of certain factual circumstances, such a statement may be considered as a risk of alleged breach of competition law," the Competition Agency wrote.
According to the agency, the competitive situation in the fuel import market has improved in recent years.
"The total share of the five major economic agents operating in the retail market was 58.8% in 2021, while the remaining 41.2% was owned by other companies. In 2013, only five major economic agents were operating on the market with 960 petrol stations, while in 2021 – 1232, the growth totaled to 29%. The retail market is low concentrated.
In 2012, 8 economic agents were represented on the market and their number increased to 63 in 2019, while the rate amounted to 39 in 2021.
In 2021, the country imported a total of 1,453,707 thousand liters of gasoline and diesel, which is 7.2% more than the same period in 2020. The largest volume of fuel imports came from Turkmenistan - 22.1%, followed by the Russian Federation - 19.2% and Romania -18.2%. 45.7% of total imports accounted for diesel fuel, while petrol imports stood at 54.3%. Of the gasoline-type fuels, the most in-demand was regular-type fuel, which accounted for 64% of total gasoline and 34.9% of total imports," the Competition Agency said in a statement.
A bit earlier, oil company Wissol told TV-program Analytics, that fuel price would increase by 20-25 tetri in the near future
