On the XIII April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development hosted by the National Research University – High School of Economics (HSE) with support of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Yakov Ruderman, General Director of Petromarket RG, delivered a speech «The Russian oil refining as an object of the State regulation». The annual April conference is one of the main public events in the economic and social sciences in Russia. Its main feature is that the university venue is used for a dialogue between theorists and practitioners, governmental officials, business and science, between the Russian and foreign experts.

At a round table “Modern tools of state regulation and control over the oil market: its impact on pricing and oil refining efficiency in Russia”, organized by the Center for the Energy Asset Assessment of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE), Yakov Ruderman, General Director of Petromarket RG addressed with a speech «Condition of the Russian oil refining and the painful points of State regulation of its oil industry.

At a conference «Rail deliveries of oil cargoes in Russia: peculiarities of the current stage» held in Marriott Moscow Royal Aurora hotel Roman Safiyulin, analyst of Petromarket Research Group, made a report: «Transportation of oil and oil products: by pipe or railway? Main export routes». The conference was organized by the MAXConference company to discuss the most important issues of the present bulk-oil cargoes deliveries market of Russia.

At the first international conference "Aviation Fuel Supply - 2012", which took place in Renaissance Moscow Olympic hotel, Alexander Bylkin, the analyst of Petromarket Research Group made a report on a topic "Aviation fuel market condition in Russia". Conference was arranged by the Сenter for Strategic Development in Civil Aviation (AVIACENTER) to discuss the essential issues of the state regulation, pricing and demonopolization of aviation fuel market as well as jet fuel quality and safety of flights.

Yakov Ruderman, General Director of Petromarket Research Group, made a speech at a Joint Rosstat and IEA workshop on Energy Statistics "Russian statistics practices on demand and supply balances development of hydrocarbons and its refined products". The seminar was devoted to the challenges of the Russian and international energy statistics harmonization related to the Russia's prospective entry into the OECD.

At the 3rd International Forum "Exchange and OTC Markets for Oil and Oil Products in Russia" (held at the President Hotel in Moscow), Yakov Ruderman, General Director of the Petromarket research group, delivered a speech on "State regulation as a source of price risks in the oil market". The forum is organized by Information-Analytical Portal eOil (www.eoil.ru) under the auspices of the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service and the Russian Federal Service for Financial Markets. Forum participants include representatives of Russian and foreign government agencies, international exchanges and market information agencies, and leading specialists from oil and investment companies in Russia and CIS countries.

Petromarket Research Group Director for Research Projects Alexandra Zubacheva made a presentation titled “Russian LPG Market in 2010-2011: State and Prospects” at the 2nd Annual Conference “Russian LPG and LNG Markets: New Development Milestones” (Moscow, Marriott Hotel). Attending were officials from the Federal Service for Tariffs, the Ministry of Energy, regional administrations, Gazprom Gazenergoset, SIBUR, NOVATEK, Cryogenmash, Sakhalin Energy, Cryogas, Gazprom Promgaz, Gazprom VNIIGAZ, TNK-BP, Rosneft, and others. The participants had an open discussion that focused on the government’s role in the improvement of the regulatory framework for the LPG and LNG market, LNG pricing, affordability and quality of LPG and LNG inside the country, new areas for the development of the LNG market, corporate gas marketing strategies, and prospects for the development of the gas filling station market.

Petromarket Research Group Director-General Yakov Ruderman made a presentation titled “New Realities in State Regulation of the Industry. What Does This Mean for Oil Refining?” at the 15th Annual Roundtable “Refining and Petrochemicals in Russia and the CIS Countries” (Geneva, Switzerland). The roundtable, organized by the World Refining Association, brought together the heads of leading oil companies, refineries and petrochemical plants from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Kyrgyzstan, as well as officials from Russian and foreign project engineering and consulting companies, and suppliers of modern technologies and equipment.

At the annual international conference “Russian Oil Products market: At the doorstep of civilized trade” held in the Marriott Royal Aurora hotel in Moscow, the general director of the Petromarket Research Group Yakov L. Ruderman gave a speech entitled: “Could there be an oil product deficit in Russia?” and an analyst of company Roman Safiyulin gave a presentation on: “60-66-90 New realities for Russian oil products.” During the conference issues discussed included the efficiency of tax and technical regulation in the oil industry, prospects of the exchange trade, formula pricing when entering into contracts as well as the possibilities of risk hedging for manufacturers and traders in the domestic market.

In Moscow during the Argus Media conference “Oil Products market in 2011” the general director of the Petromarket research group Yakov L. Ruderman gave a speech entitled: “Will the market for oil products be balanced in the upcoming years?” Participants of the conference included representatives of government agencies, trade and transport companies as well as purchasers of oil products. Topics discussed included the reasons behind the kerosene and winter diesel fuel deficits in the domestic market as well as the outlook for growth in the market in light of the new export tariff 60-66.

32-nd issue of the quarterly review «Russia’s Oil Balances» is released and sent to subscribers.

In this issue market condition of oil and oil products for the 2-nd quarter 2011 in RF is analyzed and forecasts for the 3-rd and 4-th quarters 2011 are given.

Also preliminary forecasts of Russia’s oil market development in 2012 are presented.

Anna Panovko, Business Development Director of Petromarket Research Group, presented the report “Rail Transportation of Oil and Oil Products. Main Export Routes” at the session “Trends on the Market of Transportation of Liquid Oil Products: Prospective Changes in the Market Configuration and Transportation Structure” of the international conference “Rail Transportation of Liquid Oil Products in the Russian Federation.”

Yakov Ruderman, General Director of Petromarket Research Group, presented the report “Export Taxation: A Goal-Setting Crisis?” at the session “Problem of Changing Export Duty Rates for Oil and Gas Companies” of the international conference “Taxation of the Oil and Gas Industry as an Instrument of Its Development,” which was participated by representatives of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, Federal Taxation Service of the Russian Federation, leading oil companies, major banks, Russian petroleum exchanges, and international auditing companies.

Petromarket Research Group presented a new information and analytical product – monthly report “Estimated Average Refining Margin of Russian Oil Refineries.”

Refining margin is a universally accepted indicator of oil refining efficiency (profitability), which is used extensively in analysis of the market impact on oil refineries and groups of oil refineries with different levels of process equipment and the entire oil refining industry.

Monthly report “Estimated Average Refining Margin of Russian Oil Refineries” are published by the company since April 2011. The reports present estimated refining margins of 15 largest oil refineries with a capacity over 9 million tons a year in European Russia, Ural, and West Siberia, whose export tend to countries of the Atlantic basin.

Commercial distribution of these monthly reports will start in June 2011.

Alexander Bylkin, Analyst of Petromarket Research Group, presented the report “Production of Lubricants in Russia” at the conference “Industrial Oils and Lubricants in Metallurgy and Machine Building.” The conference was dedicated to development of production of oils and lubricants for metallurgy, metal working, and machine building. New technologies and solutions were presented at the conference.

Yakov Ruderman, General Director of Petromarket Research Group, presented the report “Oil Refining in Russia. The Princess Can Turn Back to Cinderella” at the 4th Annual Conference “World Fuel Oil Summit” (St. Julians, Malta) organized by Axelrod Energy Projects.

Anna Panovko, Business Development Director of Petromarket Research Group, presented the report “Export from the Caspian Region and Central Asia – Crude Oil or Oil Products?” at the annual international conference “5th Caspian Oil and Gas Trade and Transportation Conference” (Baku, Azerbaijan).

Yakov Ruderman, General Director of Petromarket Research Group, presented the report “Russian Market of Oil Products: the Crisis of Over, What Now?” at the 17th Annual Conference of the Balkan and Black Sea Petroleum Association (Vienna, Austria).

Alexander Bylkin, Analyst of Petromarket Research Group, and Boris Sobolev, Expert of the Association of Oil Refiners and Petroleum Chemists, presented the joint report “Production of Lubricants by Russian Base Oil Producers. Quantity and Quality, Actual and Planned” at the 4th Annual Meeting “Base Oils and Lubricants in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States” in Moscow organized by the World Refining Association.

Yakov Ruderman, General Director of Petromarket Research Group, presented the report “Regulation of Taxation in Oil Refining” at the round table “Are Russian Oil and Gas Assets Attractive?” in the Moscow Reserves Estimation Center, Faculty of World Economics and World Politics, National Research University “Higher School of Economics.”