The secretary general of the Portuguese Association of Petroleum Companies (Apetro) said on Friday that he had no memory of such a “big rise” in fuel prices, after the announcement of a 14 cent increase for diesel. and eight cents for gasoline next week. .
“I don’t remember, I have no memory of such an increase, which has to do with the whole situation of unpredictability that results from the war in Ukraine,” António Comprido, who was the general secretary of Apetro for over a year 20 years.
The official, who was speaking on the sidelines of the conference “The war in Europe and the energy shock”, promoted by the newspaper ECO, in Lisbon, stressed that it is not about the scarcity of products on the market , but of the “psychological impact that a war has”, which cannot be controlled.
“Prices have completely skyrocketed, petrol and diesel. The figures that I saw, the average of the first four days of the week, indicated growth of around 14% for diesel and petrol, around 8% and inevitably this will have an impact on prices at the consumption next week,” he added. . .
António Comprido pointed out that Portugal does not have the capacity to intervene in fuel pricing, so rising prices in international markets “will inevitably have to be reflected” in the price charged at gas stations .
“We all understand that it is very difficult for people, companies, industries to bear this price level and this must be combated by measures, whether of a fiscal or other nature, some of which, moreover, are already in force, but others, of course, will already be considered [pelo Governo]“, underlined António Comprido, who heard the Secretary of State for Energy, João Galamba, say, during the conference, that the government was analyzing a reinforcement of support.
While João Galamba listened to the statements of the general secretary of Apetro to journalists, António Comprido recalled that the study that led to the elaboration of the law allowing intervention of the margins of fuel traders was based on published figures by ENSE – National Energy Sector Entity, which accounted for margins of 30 cents per liter.
“By chance, yesterday I looked at the ENSE site and the diesel margin was at 3 cents per liter, so I’m asking if now we’re also going to rush to do something to protect traders’ margins,” said joked the secretary general. , pointing out that the aforementioned study “is badly done” and that “publishing these values only confuses people”.
For his part, the Secretary of State for Energy, who later spoke to reporters, argued that the fact that traders’ margins have been reduced means that the approved law “has taken effect”.
“It just shows that the market has adjusted and that the law we passed has really had the effect we wanted: a deterrent effect,” said the minister.
