He repeats that their need would arise if the oil price stayed above 100 US dollars per barrel for several days in a row. On Tuesday, the market price of Brent oil was 79.36 US dollars per barrel.
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“We have definitely not reached any critical limit now. Especially today and last week you saw those fluctuations, so intervention is not always necessary. We do not see a dramatic situation now,” T. Valys told journalists on Wednesday.
“When we reach a certain trend, as I mentioned before, for example, if the price stays at 100 dollars per barrel (of oil – BNS) for some time, then we will activate those measures centrally,” he said.
The minister also emphasized again that there are now “refined” tax and non-tax fuel price mitigation measures, but there is no reason to use them yet. T. Valys said that one of the measures would be a reduction of the excise duty on fuel.
“We have that plan for certain scenarios. If prices rise to a certain limit, they are to be considered, but (…) we cannot talk about them now, announce them prematurely. There are no circumstances now that would require activating them,” the minister said.
“There are other scenarios if we were to consider making a decision like Poland or Latvia did. But now there is simply no reason to talk about it. If we have a critical situation, it will be activated,” he added.
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According to the Lithuanian Energy Agency, the average diesel price in Lithuania is 2.027 euros per liter, and the average gasoline price is 1.778 euros.
As BNS wrote, Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius earlier said that if high fuel prices persist for a longer time, the government will take measures to mitigate them.
Energy Minister Lukas Savickas told BNS in an earlier interview that temporary price control instruments would be considered if prices deviate from European or regional trends for a longer period.
When the conflict flared up in the Middle East in mid-April, the excise duty on diesel in Lithuania was reduced by 6 cents for two months. The decision was made by the former government of Inga Ruginienė.
At the beginning of summer, after preliminary agreements between the US and Iran were announced, the situation stabilized for a while, but with the resumption of shelling, shipping in the Strait of Hormuz essentially stopped again.
