The Ministry of Energy has published the project regarding the measures at the pump / What fines risk companies that speculate with fuel
The Ministry of Energy published in public transparency the draft GEO regarding the measures announced by the Government to “protect the economy and the population during the crisis situation” on the fuel market.
According to the explanatory memorandum, the project establishes:
- declaring the crisis situation on the crude oil and/or oil products market;
- the export of petroleum products (gasoline and diesel) can only be carried out with the agreement of the ministry with attributions in the economic field and the relevant ministry;
- the practical commercial addition by economic operators who produce, import, distribute and / or trade gasoline, diesel and the raw materials used to obtain them is limited to no more than 50% of the average commercial addition recorded in the last 12 calendar months. The measure is aimed at avoiding inappropriate behavior of economic operators and stopping possible speculation tendencies in order to prevent unjustified price increases for these products.
- measures are instituted to prevent the sale of petroleum products at a price that exceeds the maximum price values;
- the possibility is introduced for economic operators to reduce the biofuel content of the gasoline volumes placed on the market from 8% to a minimum of 2% for gasoline, during the period of application of the protective measures.
The initiators of the project claim that “the events in the Middle East have had major repercussions on the global oil market, especially with regard to the international quotations of crude oil and diesel, which have so far increased by at least 25-50% compared to the beginning of February 2026, and the increase in quotations puts major pressure on the Romanian oil market, which depends on crude oil imports to the extent of about 75%”.
The ordinance provides that the application of commercial additions above those provided for constitutes speculative action and will be sanctioned with a fine between 5% and 10% of the turnover or, for newly established companies, with a fine between 100,000 and 1,000,000 lei.
The government intervenes again in the gas market
Also, the draft GEO put up for public debate also provides for measures in the natural gas sector, specifying that the authorities will be able to monitor and recalculate the minimum natural gas stocks for the cold season, ensuring household consumers and economic activities with the necessary amounts of energy.
This is because the legislation by which the liberalization of the gas market was postponed until March 31, 2026 is ambiguous and could lead to imbalances in the market.
Thus, the new ordinance allows:
- elimination of legal ambiguities and the risk of non-unitary interpretation;
- ensuring the correct delimitation of the attributions of public institutions;
- avoiding malfunctions in the implementation of the natural gas allocation mechanism;
- preventing imbalances between market participants;
- reducing the risk of litigation generated by unclear application of legal provisions.
The legislation approved by the Government regarding the postponement of the liberalization of the gas market was ambiguous and could lead to higher prices for the population, according to the publication e-nergia.ro.
