Can Mongolia Build Its Way Out of Fuel Shortages While Russia Controls the Price?

When drivers queued at gasoline stations across Ulaanbaatar in late July, officials pointed to a familiar culprit: the annual surge in travel during the Naadam holiday. National inventories of AI-92 gasoline had fallen to just 17 days of consumption, while diesel stocks stood at 23 days.

Motorists at the gasoline station in Ulaanbaatar (gogo.mn)

The government’s response was equally familiar. It announced 330 billion MNT ($91.6m) in commercial-bank loans to help 18 private distributors build 22 new storage facilities, the first step in a plan to establish a three-month strategic fuel reserve by 2028.

The logic is straightforward. A country that imports almost all of its petroleum products from Russia needs bigger buffers against external shocks.

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