A total of 935 legal entities and sole proprietors registered as fuel retailers were deregistered in Russia between January and September 2026. According to Kommersant's calculations based on Kontur.Focus data, that was 16.7% more than in the same period a year earlier. The figure counts deregistered businesses and individual entrepreneurs, not the number of petrol stations that closed.
Over the same period, 668 new market participants registered, down 28.4% from January–September 2025. For the first time since 2022, closures exceeded new registrations. Approximately 10,720 companies and sole proprietors were operating in the sector as of October 1.
Industry specialists interviewed by the newspaper attributed the pressure on independent fuel retailers to supply disruptions, rising wholesale prices and higher costs.