Government of Serbia adopts emergency measures!

Photo: Shutterstock, A. Nalbantjan

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic convened an emergency meeting today with representatives of relevant ministries and institutions to review the situation on the fuel market and the state of fuel reserves in the country.

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The Government of Serbia decided to extend the ban on the export of oil and oil derivatives until April 2, 2026.

"The ban refers to export of diesel, gasoline and crude oil used for all modes of transport, and we extended it as one of the measures to protect citizens and the economy from surges in oil prices on the world market, something that is still ongoing. We also decided to release 40,000 tons of diesel from the reserves, as an additional measure to protect the market, which will be implemented in the coming days," said Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic.

She also said that the aim of the measures in effect now, and those in the works - such as a 20% reduction of excise duties on fuel - is to protect the domestic market from shortages of oil derivatives and price surges due to global disruptions caused by the conflict in the Middle East and the increase in the price of oil by 40% that happened over the recent weeks.

The price of oil rose sharply today to $112 per barrel, after the Iranian media reported an air strike on a facility at the world's largest natural gas field. Just a few days ago, the price was around $65, further illustrating the scale of the price increase.

The benchmark Brent crude oil price reached $112 per barrel early this morning in Asia, up more than 5 percent from Tuesday's price, the BBC reported.

The spike followed reports that Iran's petrochemical complex at the South Pars gas field had been hit.

Hours later, Qatar reported that extensive damage had been caused to the Ras Laffan industrial site also came under attack.

Although the price of both oil and gas rose sharply, they remained below the highs seen earlier in the conflict, the BBC said, noting that oil had hit $116.78 per barrel on March 9.

Iran's oil ministry said the fire at the petrochemical complex was under control, Tasnim, a news agency affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported.

The situation on the global oil and gas market is further deteriorating. Some countries have already introduced restricted sales at gas stations, Slovenia, Greece, Slovakia and Italy among them, while the price of fuel in the US has reached around $5 per gallon.

(Telegraf Biznis)