Doris Leblond
OGJ Correspondent
PARIS, Feb. 4 -- In an unprecedented move, French Finance and Economy Minister Christine Lagarde admitted that oil companies and distributors had kept a promise made at the Nov. 10, 2007, roundtable she chaired, that they would smooth out oil price peaks and pass along price drops as quickly as possible at service stations.
She noted in a press release that the price of motor fuels had returned in late January to the preround table level following heights reached in early January. She said three factors explained variations in the price of motor fuels over the last few weeks in France, pushing up prices:
-- The impact of the French biofuels plan, which since Jan.1 has jumped to a 5.75% incorporation into motor fuels. That goal was set by the European Union for 2010, but France anticipated it earlier, leading to logistic adaptations and costlier supply.
-- The turnaround of a number of refineries, the reduction in product sulfur content, and the railway strikes that resulted in higher costs in late November.
-- The increase in the internal oil products tax, which the government had transferred to the regions.
Jean-Louis Schilansky, delegate general of the oil companies' trade group UFIP, told OGJ that the price of gasoline and diesel fuel increased by some €0.02/l. compared with what it should have been.
Schilansky said, "What we really appreciate is the rational analysis of the situation by the government. The price of motor fuels is now being discussed at an economic level and no longer in a political and polemical way."
