After dozens of gas stations ran out of diesel, Petrom intervenes with a message for customers
Some of the gas stations in the OMV Petrom chain ran out of fuel on Thursday. This after prices at these stations fell significantly in recent days to levels since the start of the Iran war, and drivers fueled more. Company representatives say that there is no reason to panic, and the situations are punctual and short-lived.
Since the beginning of the week, gasoline ended up costing around 8 lei per liter at Petrom stations, and diesel, 8.6 lei per liter, levels similar to those at the beginning of March.
According to HotNews information, these discounts are related to the capping of commercial margins, a measure taken by the Government a month ago.
“Companies must fall within the average of last year's commercial addition. They go for three weeks with an estimated commercial addition, and if towards the end of the month they realize that it was higher, they lower it massively so as not to exceed last year's average. Otherwise, they risk receiving a fine from their turnover”, energy sector officials explained to HotNews.
The company's reaction
Contacted by HotNews, the representatives of OMV Petrom confirmed that there have been situations where the stocks in some gas stations have been exhausted, but they specify that these situations are short-lived.
“The implementation of a new methodology for calculating the price at the pump as a result of administrative interventions has led to significant price reductions at our stations. The current prices at the pump reflect both the limitation of the addition in the distribution activity and in the refining activity, as well as the advantages generated by the integrated business model. This evolution has generated an accelerated growth in demand.
In this context, product unavailability may occur temporarily in some stations. These are spot-on and short-lived effects, with the stations being repowered quickly.
We thank customers for their understanding,” the company said.
A similar situation occurred in Rompetrol stations
A similar situation also happened at the beginning of April, during a weekend when Rompetrol significantly reduced premium diesel.
This is because the refinery of the Rompetrol group, Petromidia, had been reopened during that period after a month of revisions and a larger amount of premium diesel at a reduced price reached the market.
This variety had come to be cheaper than standard diesel and gas station stocks quickly ran out. However, the situation was short-lived, as gas stations were also quickly refueled.
The government limited the commercial addition of companies
At the end of March, the Government declared a crisis situation on the fuel market and decided to implement several measures for three months, including limiting the commercial addition of companies to the average level of last year.
“The commercial surcharge applied by economic operators who produce, import, distribute and/or trade petrol, diesel is limited to the average value of the commercial surcharge applied in 2025 by each economic operator. Exports and intra-community deliveries are an exception”, the normative act states.
“The measure is aimed at discouraging possible inappropriate behavior of economic operators and potential speculation tendencies, which would lead to unjustified price increases for these products.”
In the event of commercial additions exceeding the limits provided for in the normative act, fines between 0.5% and 1% of the turnover achieved in the year prior to the sanctioning will be applied.
