The surge in crude oil prices to almost 60$ on international markets will significantly boost prices of fuel on the freshly deregulated Romanian market, with a possible impact on inflation as well.
Romania is now open to fluctuations of international crude oil quotations, a situation that first emerged early this year because Petrom, the main player on the domestic oil market, previously had its own pricing policy, unrelated to what was happening on the foreign market.
"A 10% increase in crude oil quotations means 3-4% higher prices of oil products (a category including diesel oil and petrol), a price hike that occurs in about 20 to 45 days. Let us not forget that this trend has started some time ago. Ural crude oil (coming from Russia) got about 20% more expensive from $45 per barrel to 54 dollars, which means about 7-8% higher prices of oil products", Dinu Patriciu, chairman and the main shareholder of Rompetrol oil group, the second-largest player on the domestic oil market, told Ziarul Financiar.
According to Patriciu, since the beginning of the year, the cumulated growth rate of oil has hit 32%. Rompetrol operates Petromidia refiney, one of the biggest refineries on the Romanian market, processing Ural-type crude oil, rich in sulphur.
Crude oil quotations climbed 9% within a week, getting to a record high on Monday, namely 59 dollars per barrel, amid solid growth of demand on foreign markets, Reuters said. According to the above-quoted source, market uncertainty as to crude oil exports by producing states resurfaced at the end of last week, after the United States, Great Britain and Germany shut down their consulates in Lagos, the largest city of Nigeria, amid threats coming from Islamic militants. Nigeria is one of the world''s biggest producers of crude oil and is part of OPEC, the organisation of oil exporting states.
Patriciu maintains that inflationary pressures arising from the higher prices of oil products are still low. "A 10% increase per barrel of crude oil will trigger 3-4% higher prices of products, 3-4% higher prices of transportation, with an impact over goods and services. The final impact in this case over inflation is of about 0.06%, according to our calculations," the Rompetrol chairman said. adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro
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