The judicial path is open for oil operators who have sued the state over the manner in which the Transparency Board sets prices. Sources from the hydrocarbon market confirmed to Monitor that on September 19, the first hearing for the review of the lawsuit of one of the companies is expected to take place at the Administrative Court. The Administrative Court will review the lawsuits separately for each operator, as the lawsuits have been filed individually with the court.
The lawsuits were filed with the Administrative Court in mid-July. In total, there are 8 fuel import and trading operators who are seeking around 11.8 million euros in compensation for losses they claim were caused by the Transparency Board's calculation of prices below cost.
In May, about 2 months after the reactivation of the Transparency Board, which continued to recalculate fuel prices with the same formula used in 2022 during the war crisis in Ukraine, importers warned the government that they would sue it and seek compensation for under-calculating the price of oil.
According to them, the government continued to use the same erroneous methodology, calculating based on the FOB (Free on Board) price, which does not take into account transportation and insurance, and not the CIF price, which includes transportation and insurance and increases the purchase price by 45-50 dollars per ton (since 2024, international trading companies no longer operate on the basis of FOB contracts, but on the basis of CIF contracts).
While the price set by the Board was based on the FOB indicator, customs calculated VAT on the CIF indicator. But this difference creates losses for operators of 4.7 lek per liter.
Meanwhile, in the domestic retail market, oil prices continue to rise due to the escalation of the war in the Middle East and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 1/5 of world oil production passes.
This has led to a significant increase in the Platts oil price, which is used to calculate the price of oil for customs clearance in the domestic market. From 1300 USD/ton 6 days ago, the price reached 1,450 USD per ton. Price fluctuations on foreign stock exchanges led to an increase in the price of oil and gasoline, with both being traded at prices over 200 lek per liter.
Domestic importers predicted that if the escalation of the war continues, wholesale oil prices will continue to rise. In this situation, according to them, the only measure that would contain prices is the reduction of oil taxes by the Albanian government./Monitor
