The Ministry of Capital Investments (MKI) has prepared a draft law on the supply of oil derivatives in the event of a supply disruption, which imposes the entire obligation to form state reserves, their storage and insurance, as well as all costs, on fuel sellers, i.e. companies that have gas stations.
The Association of Oil Companies in Montenegro is against such a proposal and they are asking for the application of one of the European solutions in which the state forms and takes care of state reserves, because the conditions that are being tried to be imposed could only be met by two or three companies and the rest would cease to operate. which would destroy the principles of competition.
According to the draft law, all fuel sellers would have to have petroleum product warehouses in which there must be petroleum products at the level of 90 days of sales 24/7.
This means that the companies would have to buy such quantities of fuel, worth several million, and keep the same quantities in those warehouses and pay the costs of storage and insurance.
The oil companies told the News that for the past 30 years, the state did not allow them to build oil warehouses, which is why they don’t have them now, and that they would have to take out large loans to buy such quantities of oil derivatives and that would be dead capital for the companies.
They also stated that it was not defined what would happen if they buy reserves in such quantities in a period of high prices and later have to sell them for renewal in a period of low prices, because that would lead them to bankruptcy.
They believe that this solution, for which they do not know the comparative practice, was brought in favor of large companies that have warehouses from before and that could dictate prices to small ones and condition them, which would create an oligopoly prohibited by law. That is why they are asking for a much longer public debate to be organized, to accept their remarks and for the state to apply some of the European practices in the formation of state reserves.
