Dear fuel, government assesses mobile excise duties. Eni cuts diesel prices: back to 2.19 euros

The fuel emergency continues and, once the tax discount is over, the government led by Giorgia Meloni is thinking about the next moves to try to contain the increases. Yesterday there was a meeting with the refiners to ask them to produce more in order to lower prices. Among the hypotheses is also the use of mobile excise duties: the topic "is not abandoned", said the Deputy Minister of Economy Maurizio Leo, while the Minister of Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto Fratin put the brakes on. Meanwhile, today Eni announced the decision to further cut the price of diesel recommended to distributors: with a reduction of 2 cents, the price list drops from 2.21 to 2.19 euros per litre. This is the same level as the first price cap announced on September 25th. The official price ceiling, as already reported by the company, remains at 2.25 euros.

The meeting with the refiners

Yesterday, therefore, the government met with the refiners - the companies that manage the 13 Italian refineries (Innovhub, Iplom, Q8, Ludoil, Saras, Alma Petroli, Eni, Gruppo Api, Sonatrach) and their trade association, Unem - and asked them to increase the production of petrol, diesel and jet fuel to lower prices. Minister Pichetto Fratin and his Business colleague Adolfo Urso were present. Refiners have responded that they will try to produce more, but that to do so they need to change fuel specifications at European level. The refining sector is "ready to verify any further increase in production that is technically achievable, through a plant-by-plant evaluation", said Gianni Murano, president of Unem. However, he added, "further production increases will be possible if changes to the technical specifications of the products are identified at European level". According to Italian refiners, with these changes national production could increase by 1 - 1.5 million tonnes per year, European production overall by 15 million tonnes and - they claim - imports could be cut by 25%.