PETROLEUM MARKET OPERATORS LOWER PRICES ON FUELS

Prices on gasoline and diesel fell 1-3% at a number of gas stations on Wednesday.

A liter of gasoline A-95 may be bought today at a price of 18.37-18.47 lei against 18.9 lei yesterday. The diesel fuel cheapened to 16.62 lei from 16.8, while the liquefied petroleum gas – to 10.72 lei from 11.5 lei.

The prices were lowered after the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE) approved on Friday a new methodology of price formation, in accordance with which they are established by market operators. However, it has not been published in the Monitorul Oficial governmental bulletin and has not entered into force yet.

According to the previous methodology, the maximum threshold of retail prices on gas stations were established by the ANRE each two weeks on the basis of international petroleum exchanges’ quotes – Platts for gasoline and diesel, and Argus – for the LPG. Besides, operational costs, connected with importing operations were taken into account at calculation, including the transportation and insurance costs, as well as the excise tax on fuel, the VAT and a special trade mark-up, on the basis of revenues and profit of companies.

The last time the fuel prices were frozen on August 7, 2019 at the level of 19.01 and 16.89 lei per liter, respectively, due to the disagreements between operators and consumers. Later, it was decided to develop a new methodology. In accordance with it, the prices will be calculated by market operators given the costs and the profitability not higher than 10%.