The government will analyse what measures could be adopted to limit the increase in fuel prices, if such a trend continues in the next period, given the situation in the Middle East, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said at a press conference held at the Victoria Palace on Thursday evening, according to Agerpres.
He was asked what scenarios the government had in mind to cap fuel prices in light of the situation in the Middle East.
"We must be very realistic and fair with the Romanians. The conflict in the Middle East has strongly disturbed the oil supply chain in this region, the supply chain for fuels processed at refineries in the region, as well as raw materials such as urea or ammonia, which are imported in significant quantities by European industry. Therefore, markets all over the world are facing price rises. Fuel stations worldwide have been forced to increase prices, regardless of whether they directly imported fuel from the Gulf area or not. Some things depend on us and we must intervene, while others do not, and we must adapt and see what we can do. As you know, in areas where Romania has resources, such as natural gas, we took what we consider to be the right decision and, through a certain mechanism, managed to stop the increase in gas prices. This means that our citizens will have predictability in the coming months, at least in this respect, especially since next year we will extract additional quantities from the Black Sea,' Ilie Bolojan said.
With regard to other hydrocarbons - oil and its derivatives, gasoline and diesel - Romania imports two thirds of the quantity it needs, meaning that most of it comes from abroad.
'Considering the price increase on international markets of 40-50% in crude oil, even higher increases in diesel prices and comparatively smaller increases in gasoline prices, we can see that on our market gasoline prices have indeed risen, because, as I said, we cannot block them since we are part of the global market. However, they have increased at a moderate pace. What we are doing now is analysing market developments on a daily basis. Obviously - and we must not hide this from people - the longer this conflict lasts, the longer refineries will be affected and transport from the Gulf area disrupted, which is difficult to predict today. If in the coming days we find that there is a continuing upward trend in these prices, we will analyse what measures we can take that could limit - I stress, not eliminate, because we cannot do that - these increases, so that they remain bearable for the citizens of our country and for our economy,' Bolojan said.
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