The price of fuel oil as used by Enemalta for its power plants has dropped by 39 per cent since October, when the new energy bills were introduced, according to figures obtained from a leading energy information provider.

The drop in the price of oil has not yet been reflected in consumer bills, even though the new tariffs had to be revised when the price of oil fluctuated by more than 15 per cent.

Still, the Ministry for Infrastructure yesterday denied there was even a 15 per cent fluctuation from the benchmark price used by Enemalta to calculate the tariffs but stopped short of saying by how much had the price of oil fluctuated.

An exercise undertaken by The Times shows that the spot price of low sulphur fuel oil and gas oil, as quoted by Platts, a leading energy information provider, on January 21 was 39 per cent below the fuel cost computed by Enemalta's auditors, KPMG.

In October, Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt and Finance Minister Tonio Fenech had announced that the new tariffs were based on a full recovery of Enemalta's costs, including its fuel bill.

They also announced that the tariffs would be revised every six months or when the price of oil fluctuated by more than 15 per cent.