Industries Demand Watchdog to Monitor Fuel Market Abuses

TIRANA, March 14 – The Confederation of Albanian Industries (Konfindustria) has reiterated its request to government for the establishment of a watchdog to supervise the fuel and liquid gas market in the country following allegations of price abuses.
Konfindustria’s director Gjergj Buxhuku said the establishment of the Fuel Regulatory Entity was becoming a necessity because of lack of state institutions that could intervene in the strategic market to regulate prices in case of abuses.
Buxhuku explained the recent continuous increase in fuel and gas prices with the possible existence of a cartel agreement among market operators.
“The continuous ill-functioning of the oil market in Albania, under the conditions when theoretically we have a liberalized market could be explained only with the existence of a ‘cartel’ type of agreement among field operators,” said Buxhuku.
With an annual turnover of 800-900 million euros, the fuel market is one of the biggest industries in the country and has a direct impact on all sectors of the economy and citizen’s welfare. Experts say the increased oil prices could also affect the cost of Albanian agricultural products competing with foreign products.
Diesel and petrol prices last February increased by 0.9 and 0.7 percent, respectively. The liquid gas price had the biggest increase of 3.8 percent, according to data released by the Institute of Statistics earlier this month.
Meanwhile, the Competition Authority has launched an investigation into the liquid gas market after media allegations of limited competition on the market but has announced any conclusions yet.