Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said on Sunday evening that, because of the war in the Middle East, the strongest pressure in terms of fuel price increases is on diesel, something Romania cannot avoid either.
Bolojan announced that he will meet on Monday with representatives of OMV, who have come up with a solution that takes into account a potential long-term blockage of transit through the Strait of Hormuz, agerpres reports.
'In such conditions, the current turbulence on the crude oil and fuel markets will certainly intensify and could turn into a crisis. At the moment we are seeing turbulence because these supply chains are no longer functioning. Only 10% of the normal traffic through this strait has passed over the past two weeks. It is clear that those who used to source supplies from Asian countries now face shortages, so they are buying from everywhere, which has created additional pressure both on quantities and on prices. This has led to attempts to calm the situation, such as releasing fuel from countries' reserves, increasing production, and allowing the purchase of Russian-produced crude oil without sanctions. All these measures adopted in recent days are intended to reduce pressure on this market.
But I hope we will not reach such a situation and that within a reasonable period of time - one or two weeks - things will settle so that these supply chains can function again. One way or another, because of this war, it was inevitable - both emotionally, because that is what happens, and in real terms, because quotations on all markets have risen by 40-50% in recent days - that we would see an increase in fuel prices. This is currently happening all over the world, from the United States, where I understand increases are around 30%, to the rest of Europe, where we are seeing these rises,' Bolojan told Digi24 private television channel.
According to Bolojan, diesel - already a scarce product in our region - has seen a much larger increase, around 60-70%, while gasoline prices have risen less than the price of crude oil.
'So the main upward pressure is on diesel. From this point of view, Romania has much greater refining capacity for gasoline - we are exporters of gasoline - therefore the pressure in Europe, but also in Romania, is on diesel. What are we doing these days? First of all, we had no way of avoiding this increase. That is a certainty, and all European countries are in the same situation and are analysing what needs to be done if matters worsen and the crisis deepens, in order to take measures to temper these increases.
During this period we have acted on two or three fronts. (...) We have adopted a support scheme for transport operators. It was due to expire at the end of this month. We have now given them predictability until the end of the year: from the excise duty cost we will cover not 65 bani as before, but 85 bani, with a quarterly evaluation so that, if things move in a negative direction, we can increase this compensation, and if prices fall and return to normal we can reduce it. We will also do this for farmers, so that these two important sectors, which have direct effects on the economy - transport and agriculture - have some protection on this issue,' Ilie Bolojan added.
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