STA, 19 June 2022 - Owners of motor vehicles are heading for Slovenian service stations en masse on Sunday as regular petrol and diesel prices are expected to rise considerably when a new pricing model kicks in on Tuesday. All three major fuels providers, Petrol, OMV and MOL, have experienced occasional shortages today.
Today's demand considerably exceeds the long-term daily average demand so individual service stations have had some minor shortages, fuel company Petrol told the STA.
In recent months, this has been the case primarily at the petrol stations where large fuel customers such as farmers fill up.
However, supply has already been increased to meet the demand, although increased traffic and occasional congestion on Slovenian roads, as well as time limits imposed on motorways for trucks carrying fuel delay deliveries.
Nevertheless, the largest fuel retailer said that they are well stocked so there is no fear of fuel shortages.
24ur.com news site meanwhile reported that their users from around the country have sent in information that diesel and petrol or both are not available at some Petrol and OMV Slovenija service stations, where signs have been put up saying "currently out of stock due to increased demand".
MOL Slovenija initially experienced no problems, but the situation has already deteriorated.
Demand is additionally driven by numerous tourists filling up as they are returning home from the seaside, especially from Croatia, which has higher fuel prices.
On Wednesday, the government decided to return on 21 June to a pricing model where fuel retailers' price margins at service stations outside motorways are regulated while prices of fuels sold along motorways will be fully liberalised.
The new regime, which Slovenia had until a few years ago before it gradually introduced full liberalisation, will be in place for a year.
The new regime brings to an end the regime the previous government introduced on 11 May that capped the retail price of regular petrol at EUR 1.560 a litre and diesel at EUR 1.668 for the entire country amid the increasing cost-of-living crisis. As a result, prices are currently much lower than in the country's neighbours, except Hungary.
