Diesel will be sold two cents cheaper at a Rabat petrol station this morning as competition last seen in the 1970s returns to the fuel market.
The petrol station, M&N Camilleri, known as Ta’ Ċens, will be selling the San Luċjan diesel brand at €1.33 per litre alongside the diesel distributed by Enemed, a State company, which retails at €1.35 per litre.
San Luċjan is imported and distributed by the Falzon Group and contains the same properties as the Enemed diesel.
Owner Mario Camilleri said the Falzon Group had given petrol stations a higher profit margin at the start of the year.
“We decided to pass on the higher margin to the consumer by cutting the pump price by two cents,” he said.
Mr Camilleri said this was the first time the petrol station was offering fuel imported by the Falzon Group but motorists would still have the option to fill up with diesel from Enemed if they chose to do so.
The fuel market was liberalised when Malta joined the EU but consumers never benefitted from the development.
Enemalta remained a dominant player and minor fuel suppliers like Falzon always locked their price at the same level as the State entity.
A separate government company, Enemed, took over responsibility for Enemalta’s petroleum division last year.
But there is a measure of sweet irony that price competition has returned to the fuel market under a Labour government, since it was the 1971 administration of Dom Mintoff that nationalised the sector.
The fuel market was liberalised until the start of the 1970s, when motorists could choose between different international fuel brands such as BP and Esso.
However, the competition seized when Enemalta was created and handed a monopoly on fuel distribution.
The development came as the Nationalist Party yesterday formally gave the Speaker notice of a motion asking the government to “immediately” lower fuel prices in line with the international drop in the price of oil.
The Nationalist Party energy spokeswoman, Marthese Portelli, said Malta was the only EU country in which the significant drop in the price of oil was not reflected in lower fuel prices.
She called for a debate on the government’s hedging strategy, which has kept the pump price stable albeit at one of the highest levels in the EU.
The government has said fuel prices will drop in March, when the hedging agreements currently in force will expire.
kurt.sansone@timesofmalta.com