STA, 24 September 2020 - Fuel prices in Slovenia will be fully deregulated. "Administered prices are no longer necessary," the government said after a session late on Wednesday. It has not been announced when the decision takes effect, but the current decree on administered prices expires at the end of September.
Prices of fuel sold along motorways and expressways have been deregulated since 2016, as has the price of heating oil and premium petrol regardless of point of sale.
Regular petrol and diesel sold at all other service stations have been subject to price caps determined every two weeks.
Fuel providers, foremost among them Slovenia's largest energy company Petrol, have long complained that the state-imposed margins are too thin.
Successive governments have argued that price caps are necessary due to insufficient competition, as the market is controlled by three major players: Petrol, Austria's OMV and Hungary's MOL.
The government now says that "given suitable measures and activities to increase competitiveness on the oil derivatives market, new discount providers may enter the market, in particular in the parking lots of shopping centres."
Under that assumption, margins and hence prices would not rise. "Within five years after deregulation... they would reach the level of margins comparable to margins in other EU member states.
Petrol and OMV have welcomed the decision as a positive development on the market that will benefit all stakeholders, with both companies saying consumer would get more choice.
OMV said this would create "normal market conditions" and noted that as a transit country, Slovenia stood to benefit from the prospect of "more agile reaction to fuel prices in neighbouring countries".
Petrol said the decision constituted a "transition to free price movements" of the kind that all other competitive markets in the EU and most markets in the region already have.
It noted that in the four years since the partial liberalisation, there had been no price anomalies.
Likely capitalising on the news, Petrol shares surged by over 5% in early trading on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange today.
