Petrol station owners enraged by the drop in fuel prices have been tamed by Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt's assurance that Enemalta officials will quantify their stock.

No promises have been made but the commitment to "take it from there" was enough for the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprise (GRTU), who are expecting compensation, to rule out the possibility of a strike for the time being.

The Communications Ministry unexpectedly announced a roughly 20 per cent reduction in prices on Saturday evening, leading many petrol station owners to fear that they will make a loss on the stock they had already bought.

However, after contacting Dr Gatt by phone during a meeting they held yesterday, the owners confirmed that it will be business as usual today.

During the meeting it was agreed that, starting from today, Enemalta officials will visit petrol stations to find out how much stock they hold.

The GRTU is expecting the government to compensate the owners for the marked difference created by the reduced fuel prices.

Carlo Cini, the head of the GRTU's petrol station owners section, said he would give the government a week's chance to make the refunds. If not, the situation would have to be "reviewed".

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech was also contacted during yesterday's meeting.

Speaking to The Times, the owner of one petrol station said the government had not felt the need to check the stock after it was informed by Enemalta that there were few orders.

He pointed out, however, that low orders were not indicative since many petrol stations already had a good stock.

"Before Enemalta put up the price, they said they couldn't give us more stock because they had technical problems.

"But then owners were not informed when the price was about to go down. They told us the price was going to go down but not when. When the price goes up they inform us but not the other way round... it's not fair on us."

He added that many had stocked up for the Christmas period and could make losses of between €15,000 and €25,000. The price of unleaded petrol per litre went down by 25c to 99 cents while the price of lead replacement petrol will be €1.06, a reduction of 25c.

Diesel now costs 99c a litre, 24c cheaper, while kerosene went down by 30c to €1 a litre.