Demand for fuel rises

The Beta agency said that the demand for diesel and gasoline is growing and quoted the owners of two gas station chains who confirmed the higher demand. Fuel prices have been set every Friday by the government for months in an effort to keep the market stable following the introduction of US Treasury sanctions on the national oil company.

Jelena Radun, owner of the Radun Avia pumps, said that drivers are filling their tanks and added that farmers are buying diesel by the barrel. According to her, the expectations of higher prices were raised by the Serbian Oil Industry (NIS) which is assuring retailers that they don’t need to order more than they ordinarily do but stick to contracted quantities. Radun said wholesale prices keep rising, specifying that diesel fuel is now 195 Dinars a liter wholesale and was 181 Dinars just days earlier.

Knez Petrol owner Srdjan Knezevic said retial demand is up by 15 percent and added that wholesale demand was up 35 percent. He said prices were rising by a few Dinars every day. According to him Knez Petrol was selling fuel from its stocks and was not yet paying 215 Dinars for diesel and 180 Dinars for gasoline in wholesale.

Under the latest government decree on fuel prices, a liter of diesel costs 200 Dinars a liter and gasoline costs 178 Dinars.