According to Platts's figures, which are used as an international benchmark, the spot price for low sulphur fuel oil on January 21 was €193.34 per metric tonne. Gasoil was quoted at €342.61 per metric tonne.

Enemalta annually burns 568,000 metric tonnes of fuel oil and 75,000 metric tonnes of gasoil.

Based on these consumption patterns, as of January, Enemalta's annual fuel bill would amount to €135.5 million.

In a report in October, KPMG had computed Enemalta's yearly fuel bill at €223 million. KPMG had based the fuel cost on the price of oil between October 1 and 24 and deducted a further €30 million, to cater for falling oil prices.

This means that in just three months (the period between the KPMG's calculations and the Platts figures obtained by The Times), the cost of oil dropped by almost €88 million, or 39 per cent.

Furthermore, the Oil Market Report published by the International Energy Agency on December 11 had already pointed out that the price of low-sulphur fuel oil on average had fallen by 27 per cent on the previous month.

With the new tariffs backdated to October 1, the next revision is due by the end of March unless the government accepts that the price of oil would have changed by more than 15 per cent.