Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi has to shoulder full responsibility for the €14 million loss suffered by Enemalta when it hedged fuel purchases with state-owned Azeri company Socar, the shadow minister for energy, Marthese Portelli, said today.

Once Dr Mizzi had interfered and told Enemalta to buy from Socar, he had to bear responsibility for the consequences, Dr Portelli told a press conference.

"We have been saying that the government made a mistake in fuel procurement. Now we have the proof and Konrad Mizzi should shoulder responsibility".

Ms Portelli said that while Dr Mizzi was dealing with Socar the public was paying the highest fuel prices in Europe.

Economy shadow minister Claudio Grech said that the argument that the government hedging with Socar was aimed to prevent a raise in fuel prices was  false.

Even now, when local taxes are not taken into consideration, Maltese motorists were still paying among the highest fuel prices in Europe.

Dr Mizzi traded wrongly and yet expected the people to thank him. 

Enemalta's advisory committee had been doing its job well and things turned sour when Dr Mizzi intervened to buy fuel from Azerbaijan.

ENERGY MINISTRY REACTION

In a reaction, the Energy Ministry noted that the petrol price had decreased ater the hedging agreement.

It said the Opposition made no reference to Enemalta currency hedges which yielded a gain of €8 million last year. In addition to these gains, Enemalta registered hedging profits of €5 million for the first three quarters of 2014.

As stated by the Auditor General, losses on product hedges were registered in the last three months of 2014 due to a significant change in oil prices “which were not and could not have been anticipated when such agreements were entered into”.

"The Opposition conveniently does not mention the losses incurred by Enemalta under the previous administration, such as the ones in 2009, which losses amounted to €49.5 million," it said.