Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service said on Thursday it has launched a formal investigation into fuel price fixing by Russian oil companies.
The service will investigate diesel and jet fuel price increases by Rosneft, Russia's largest state-owned oil company, Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of energy giant Gazprom, and LUKoil, the country's largest privately held oil firm.
"A preliminary investigation in relation to these companies is underway," the service said.
Federal Anti-Monopoly Service head Igor Artemyev said on Wednesday the watchdog had decided to launch new inquiries into fuel price fixing by the country's oil majors.
In the past, the watchdog has fined Rosneft, LUKoil, Gazprom Neft and Russian-British joint oil venture TNK-BP a total of 26 billion rubles for inflating fuel costs.
The service said it would also probe the fuel pricing policies of TNK-BP, Surgutneftegas and Bashneft, which joined the group of dominating oil companies on the Russian oil product market in 2010.
Prices of winter diesel fuel grew by 53% from October 2010 to late January 2011, while jet fuel prices increased by more than 30% over the same period.
MOSCOW, February 10 (RIA Novosti)
