BULGARIAN COMPETITION WATCHDOG WITH SPEEDY FUEL PRICE PROBE

The Bulgarian Commission for Competition Protection (KZK) is going to announce in a week the results of its probe in a possible cartel agreement regarding gasoline and diesel prices in Bulgaria.

The news was reported Thursday in the Parliament by Transport Minister, Aleksander Tsvetkov, who informed he has asked the Commission for a fast and quality report because a month-long delay will make the probe useless.

The probe began last week after Tsvetkov sent a request to KZK.

Initially, the Commission said they had no intentions of launching such probe and that investigating the fuels market is not their priority now over a recent research in 2009 of how prices in the sector are formed. One day later, however, KZK began the probe.

Economy and Energy Minister, Traicho Traikov, also voiced suspicions of a cartel agreement, adding production prices of fuel in Bulgaria are the highest in the EU, triggering the strong reaction of Valentin Zlatev, the CEO of Lukoil Bulgaria, the company owner of the only oil refinery in the country.

On Wednesday, during a meeting on the subject at the Council of Ministers between the government and representatives of manufacturers and merchants of fuels, participants agreed on three measures to lower mainly diesel prices – two involve taking off the bio component from the diesel fuel or, at least, the excise duty on it while the third provides for leveling the obligations of the State and the manufacturers and merchants of fuels in maintaining mandatory quantities of fuels.

All three measures relate to infringement procedures from the European Commission.