“We are not in the scenario of falling prices. Only increases, which will be galloping”: An expert's warning about the cost of fuels

Fuels continue to rise in price, and standard diesel can reach 10 lei per liter, according to the estimates of the president of the Intelligent Energy Association, Dumitru Chiseliță. He warned on Sunday, in an intervention at Digi24, that there are no prospects for cheaper prices in the next period.

Fuel prices rose last night for the fifth consecutive day, standard gasoline exceeding the threshold of 9 lei per liter in almost all stations in the Capital, with the exception of Socar. At the same time, standard diesel is quickly approaching 10 lei per liter, a level already exceeded by the premium version.

“Our forecast was from three weeks ago, March 27, that the price of standard diesel will be 10 lei. It seems that we forecasted well”, declared Dumitru Chiseliță.

“We are not at the maximum possible that existed, basically there are situations in which we can still grow. As such, we have to consider and be prepared for these new situations that we are heading towards,” continued the energy expert.

Chiselita states that a drop in prices depends on the end of the war in Iran, but also in this case the effects

“Prices would drop so low if the war ended now, we could reach a level of 9 lei at the end of the year. But at the moment we are not in this scenario at all”, Dumitru Chiselita also said.

He added that all scenarios point to a continuation of the conflict and, implicitly, price increases.

“All the scenarios say that the war will continue, and this continuation means a perspective of the fact that the prices will continue and we are still not at all in the scenario where we talk about price drops, we are only talking about price increases, which will be galloping,” declared Chiselita.

One possible solution: moving transport to rail

Chiselita claims that one of the solutions to limit the impact of price increases would be the transfer of transport from the road to the railway.

“There would be options, there are countries that have resorted to these options. In particular, to move transport from road to rail or other means,” he said.

“If we moved to the railway we would be able to use electricity and that would lead to a reduction in diesel consumption,” he added.

“There is collateral interest in such situations”

Asked why the Executive is postponing making a decision, Chiselita said that price increases can also bring more income to the state budget.

“There are two rationales, one is that we're not doing enough analysis, we're not doing the math to determine where we're going,” he explained.

“On the other hand, there is collateral interest in such situations, when prices increase, various ways of collecting money for the state budget increase. Then there is this approach of letting things happen, because they mean extra money,” Chiseliță also said.

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