A three-month pilot project locking the price of petrol and diesel was announced this morning.

As a result of the agreement,  the price of unleaded petrol will, on Tuesday, go down 6c  to €1.43, that of diesel 2c to €1.36. This will make the price of petrol the cheapest in the past 19 months and that of diesel in the past 12.

Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi told a news conference this morning that after an agreement was reached with the international banks Barclays and Deutsche Bank, the exchange rate was fixed locally with HSBC and BOV to ensure a standard price of fuel till the end of the year.

The Government, the minister said, looked at how prices could be calculated to provide stability and talks were held with Enemalta chairman Charles Mangion to examine all options. Prices were locked during the best period, he said.

Dr Mizzi said an assessment of the system will be carried out with stakeholders to plan the way forward. He said that, in the coming weeks, the Government would evaluate bids to reach similar agreements for LNG and electricity.

Dr Mangion said the corporation was trying to create stability in prices and security of stock and supply for the three months ahead. It would be assessing the market in the short term. The quality of oil will be maintained, he said.

He also said that the corporation was carrying out an external analysis of the Public Accounts Committee hearings to see how to take certain recommendations on board to update and improve the system.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.