Roadside fencing: authorities intend to tighten control over mobile gas stations

Russia intends to tighten control over the activities of mobile and container filling stations. This is due to the fact that some of them do not follow the safety rules.: they stand near roads and buildings, and also violate trade rules. The sale of counterfeit fuel at such gas stations and the lack of state control over them damages the budget by tens of billions of rubles a year. The State Duma intends to review the norms of the Urban Planning and Land Codes, as well as the law on trade. Market participants believe that it is necessary to introduce a complete ban on the operation of mobile gas stations on public roads and the street road network. The prospects for the development of this sector of the fuel market are described in the Izvestia article.

Mobile and container gas stations

The State Duma considered appeals from regional authorities about the activities of mobile and container gas stations, Deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on Energy Yuri Stankevich told Izvestia. According to him, the parliamentarians have identified a number of problematic issues. In this regard, the authorities intend to tighten control over mobile gas stations.

According to the deputy, there is no general scheme for the placement of gas stations at the federal level, in the regions such planning is of a single nature and is dictated solely by the position of initiative governors who do not have exhaustive powers to do so. As a result of the reform of control and supervisory activities, gas stations, except for gas ones, have been withdrawn from the Rostechnadzor's area of attention. The rules for installing mobile stations have been reduced to the level of GOST and codes of practice, which no government agencies systematically monitor, he added.

— Paradoxically, but the fact is that with strict government control over the modernization of refineries, increased production of gasoline and diesel, the implementation of investment programs by companies, and export restrictions, the development of retail trade has essentially been allowed to take its course, — said Yuri Stankevich.

Among the proposals discussed in the State Duma: the need to revise the norms of Urban planning, Land codes, laws on trading activities, as well as the Code of Administrative Offenses, the parliamentarian said.

— Taking into account the feedback received from the regions, it is planned to introduce legislative initiatives during the autumn session, — said the deputy.

Rosstandart said that mobile and container filling stations operated in Russia back in the 1990s, but practically disappeared in the process of developing the fuel market, expanding gas station networks, and forming a full-fledged roadside service infrastructure at gas stations.

— However, now they have reappeared, in some regions it is becoming widespread. If there are more than 25 thousand stationary gas stations operating throughout the country, the number of non—stationary ones is unknown — according to individual expert estimates, in some regions more than 10% of automobile fuel is already sold through such gas stations — they have their own market and their own consumer, the press service of the department told Izvestia.

According to Dmitry Gusev, deputy chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Reliable Partner Association, there are already thousands of such gas stations in Russia. And their number is only growing.

"The queue for the production of gasoline trucks is scheduled for ten months in advance," added Alexander Vakhrushin, head of the Standard Oil network.

Container filling stations were originally designed for refueling corporate fleets, Dmitry Gusev recalled.

— That is, if the company has a large fleet of cars, you can place a "container" on the territory. Given that there was a certain legal gap, businessmen began to install them not only in closed territories. At the same time, no requirements are met, neither on connection to the road network, nor on safety, nor on ecology. That is, in fact, you find a site, fill it with rubble, put a container and start refueling cars," the source told Izvestia.

According to Yuri Stankevich, the lack of planning for the development of gas stations, based on the number of people living in settlements, the dynamics of the fleet and road network, and the potential for fuel demand, along with the lack of proper government control, leads to the emergence of firms that, due to their economic nature, can safely be classified as one-dayers.

The State Duma Energy Committee has sent requests to all regions, based on the responses of which emergency statistics related to such gas stations will be prepared, the deputy added.

Counterfeiting and security at mobile gas stations

As Dmitry Gusev noted, container filling stations are located in populated areas, not observing the norms from a distance of 100 m from buildings and 20 m from the road. Some of them are located near the power transmission pole.

According to Yuri Stankevich, the cost of installing a container is incommensurable with investments in the construction of a traditional gas station, the difference is measured in orders of magnitude (1-3 million rubles versus 80 million and above). The purpose of such a "business" is clear, the interlocutor believes, to find a buyer by giving him the maximum discount due to tax evasion, lack of service, control over the volume and quality of fuel.

— Fuel at such gas stations is cheaper than at stationary ones. The difference is about 7-8 rubles per liter. Besides, the fuel itself is of questionable quality," Dmitry Gusev added.

In turn, Rosstandart told Izvestia that the agency, acting as the body responsible for state control of automobile fuel, is systematically working to prevent low-quality fuel from entering the market. According to the agency, since 2015, the share of adulterated fuel in the market has decreased from 20% to 4%.

Rosstandart plans to broadcast this trend to mobile gas stations as well. However, they note that currently there are difficulties with the identification of business entities, which entails the impossibility of conducting inspections. This, in turn, leads to a lack of quality control of the automotive fuel sold at such facilities. The federal agency noted that work has already begun to resolve this issue.

— In July, the State Commission for Combating Illicit Trafficking in Industrial products approved a roadmap prepared by Rosstandart to amend regulatory legal acts related to regulating the sale of motor fuel through mobile and container filling stations. An interdepartmental industry working group under the state Commission, together with regional authorities, will also develop recommendations on the location of such stations," Rosstandart noted.

Damage to the economy

Vladislav Atmakhov, Chairman of the Committee on Ecology and Natural Resources of the Legislative Assembly of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, notes that the so-called container filling stations have just come to the intersection of legislation and are not controlled in any way.

— To install a stationary gas station, there must be local sewage treatment plants, a hard surface, and fire protection measures. And in case of violations, its activities are easily limited. And the activities of container filling stations are difficult to stop. They can be easily loaded onto a tractor truck and transported to another location," the source notes.

According to him, mobile gas stations are also damaging the environment. In addition, as a result of the inspections, a large number of violations in the documentary database were revealed.

— There is no operator at such gas stations, there is a discrepancy between the cost of the specified type of fuel on the price tag and the real one, or how much fuel was released. Sometimes they don't issue checks at all," says Izvestia's source.

According to Alexander Vakhrushin from Standard Oil, according to expert estimates, the Russian budget does not receive about 18 billion rubles a year from the actions of such gas stations.

Evgeny Arkusha, President of the Russian Fuel Union (RTS), told Izvestia that in early June, at the first meeting of the interdepartmental industry working group on combating illicit trafficking in motor fuel, the issue of developing a roadmap for amendments to regulatory legal acts related to the regulation of mobile gas stations was considered.

However, according to him, the presented roadmap does not affect the mandatory element of regulation concerning the determination of the order of conditions for the placement of gas stations themselves.

— RTS proposes to consider in the roadmap a complete ban on the operation of mobile gas stations on public roads, the street road network of urban settlements, except in cases of elimination of accidents and emergencies, as well as when used in hard—to-reach areas or in closed territories, subject to compliance with all mandatory requirements for mobile gas stations, - said Evgeny. Arkusha.

As for container filling stations, according to the head of the RTS, it is necessary to amend the Urban Planning and Land Codes of the Russian Federation regarding the definition of requirements for their operation, location and the procedure for the provision of land for such facilities. The interlocutor of Izvestia believes that the type of permit for the use of land for container filling stations should be similar to the permit for a stationary station.

Alexander Vakhrushin, head of the Standard Oil network, agrees with his colleague. According to him, it is necessary to equate container gas stations with stationary ones at the legislative level.