Fuel prices rise by 4c due to hike in international oil price

Fuel prices will as of Wednesday increase by 4c, Enemed has announced.

Unleaded petrol will increase from €1.28 to €1.31 per litre, while diesel and kerosene will cost €1.18 per litre, and ePower fuel will cost €1.46 per litre.

The prices will remain at this fixed rate until the end of March.

Enemed also announced that it will later this month launch a new type of diesel, that produces 20% fewer emissions than the current diesel at the pump.

In a statement, de facto energy minister Konrad Mizzi said that the cost hike was due to the fact that the international cost of crude oil increased by 32% between September and the end of December.

“In the last three months, all EU countries were forced to increase their fuel prices – some even increased petrol by 9c and diesel by 13c,” Mizzi said. “In Malta, prices remained stable and will even now remain significantly cheaper than the EU average.”

Mizzi pledged that the government will do its utmost to cushion the impact of higher global oil prices on fuel prices as much as possible and noted that fuel prices have gone down 11 times under the current Labour administration.

Mizzi officially lost his energy portfolio in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal last year but has remained in charge of energy affairs in his capacity as “minister within the Office of the Prime Minister”. 

‘People paying the price for corruption’ – PN

The Nationalist Party was quick to respond, claiming that the announcement was proof that the public is being made to pay the price for the government’s corruption.

“Joseph Muscat had pledged to never raise petrol and diesel prices,” the PN said in a statement. “Petrol and diesel prices will remain amongst the most expensive in Europe, this despite the fact that the international price of oil is less than half the price it was three years ago.”

The PN called on Muscat and Mizzi to shoulder political responsibility for the price rise, recalling how the minister had instructed Enemalta to hedge fuel with Azerbajaini state-owned oil company Socar, a deal that saw Enemalta lose around €11 million.

“Shortly after that deal, Mizzi and [OPM chief of staff] Keith Schembri, opened secret companies in Panama in which they planned to deposit at least a million dollars a year. Muscat has always defended Mizzi and Schembri.”