RUSSIALINK: “Medvedev hopes pact with oil cos to rein in prices will be honored” – Interfax

Dmitri Medvedev file photo

MOSCOW. Jan 14 (Interfax) – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said he hoped agreements between the government and oil companies to rein in fuel prices would be followed and that it would not be necessary to resort to restrictive measures.

“As you know we have a number of understandings with oil companies, including that price growth for petroleum products, motor fuel should not be higher than the rate of inflation. In turn we are prepared in this sense to render support to the oil sector, so that customs and tariff concessions for oil production are preserved in full,” Medvedev said at a meeting with deputy prime ministers.

“I hope this will make it possible to honor all the understandings and that we will not have to resort to the extreme measures that have been announced on more than one occasion but which we have not yet needed to carry out,” he said.

Medvedev said he was talking about so-called prohibitive export duties on petroleum products.

Medvedev said he hoped it would not be necessary to resort to those measures and that companies would “be able to fulfill the agreements regarding gasoline prices.”

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