Russian hospitals and fire services face fuel shortages as state tenders falter
Suppliers are abandoning fixed-price government fuel contracts, leaving medical and emergency facilities in Russia struggling to obtain gasoline amid reduced refinery output.
Suppliers have increasingly refused to bid on fixed-price state fuel contracts, causing hospitals, fire brigades and municipal services across Russia to lose access to gasoline, according to a report citing Russian media. Data from May and June show that the number of cancelled, unfilled or re-announced tenders for medical institutions, utilities and emergency services has tripled compared with the same period last year.
The shift is attributed to rising fuel prices that make the tender terms unprofitable; companies prefer to sell gasoline through retail channels or to commercial customers rather than under government contracts. Examples include the Dynastia regional medical centre in Samara, which received no bids for 8,500 litres of AI-92, and the Daryna rehabilitation centre in Leningrad region, whose request for 28,000 litres of AI-95 also failed. Similar difficulties were reported by the utility firm Gorelektroset in Vladimir region and the fire and emergency rescue service in Stavropol, which had to re-announce its tender multiple times before securing a single supplier.
RBC-Ukraine linked the supply constraints to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries, which have lowered national refining capacity and limited domestic fuel availability. Fixed-price public contracts, designed for a stable market, cannot keep pace with rapid price changes, forcing public institutions to compete with retail buyers for gasoline.
The outlet noted that re-tendering is ongoing, but public entities are increasingly compelled to accept a sole supplier without competition. Since March, more than 50 drone strikes have targeted Russian energy infrastructure, reducing refining capacity by about a third. Crude processing fell 25% year-on-year in June to 3.91 million barrels per day, the lowest in over two decades, while gasoline output dropped 17%. Sales restrictions have been imposed in over 40 regions, and several regions began rationing gasoline by licence-plate number on July 9.