ОБОСНОВАНИЕ НАПРАВЛЕНИЙ РАЗВИТИЯ ТОПЛИВНОГО РЫНКА В РЕГИОНАХ СИБИРИ И ДАЛЬНЕГО ВОСТОКА

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the fuel market of the regions of the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts based on cluster analysis. It is shown that the spatial structure of oil refining capacities in Russia is heterogeneous. Significant refining capacities are located in the Volga, Southern, and Central federal districts, while throughout the entire territory of Siberia and the Far East, which is significantly larger in area than the European part of Russia, there are only 7 large refineries. And the economy of these regions does not largely depend on the reliability of the only channels for the supply of petroleum products. Diversification of the regional fuel market can increase the region’s resilience to interruptions in the supply of traditional automobile fuel. The purpose of the work is to study the fuel market of individual constituent entities of the Russian Federation to justify the choice of promising areas of development, among which the authors highlight: the development of gas motor fuel, the development of electric transport, or maintaining the leading role of traditional automobile fuel. The analysis was carried out on a sample of 18 regions (Siberian and Far Eastern federal districts), for each of which the most important indicators were selected that characterize the socio-economic, infrastructural, environmental and climatic state of the regions. For the task at hand, the k-means method was chosen. As a result of cluster analysis, three groups of regions were identified with similar parameters within the groups and the maximum difference between the groups. For the regions of the first group, the optimal scenario would be to stimulate the development of the gas motor fuel market and support the population in converting engines to run on gas motor fuel. For the regions of the second group, increasing the use of alternative fuels, including the development of electric motor transport, has high potential. For the regions of the third group, it is advisable to focus on developing the market for traditional and natural gas motor fuel. It is recommended for some regions to develop programs to stimulate the development of the fuel market in relevant areas to reduce the operating costs of vehicles and ensure the reliability of meeting the demand for automobile fuel.