Gasoline

Greece's biggest oil refiner, Hellenic Petroleum, reported a 31 percent drop in second-quarter core profit on Thursday, hurt by refining margins which recorded a five-year low.

The Bloomberg agency has made a ranking of countries according to the price of the gasoline A-95.Bulgaria has the cheapest but at the same time the most inaccessible fuel in the whole European Union, quoted by Econ.bg

With fuel prices having already risen more than 10 percent since the start of the year, Greek consumers - who along with the Dutch and the Danes pay the most for gasoline in Europe - will have to prepare for more hikes.

Gasoline prices in Bulgaria went up sharply. Only a few months after the massive protests in the autumn that spanned the country for fuel appreciation and after winter's soaring prices, the A 95 gasoline carries record-breaking figures for this year. Since mid-March, the increase has averaged 12 cents per liter. From 2.08 leva on March 14, the mass gasoline now averages 2.20 leva.

Fuel market data for the first two months of this year are raising concern, as demand for gasoline shrank 5.9 percent on an annual basis, while that for diesel was only up 1.4 percent on the January-February period last year.

When the air in Prague is too polluted, public transport in the Czech capital will be free of charge in the future, DPA reported.

The Dirty Air Scheme will allow anyone, including tourists, to benefit from free travel, a city administration spokesman said.

In 2018, the sale of diesel-powered cars declined throughout the European Union, except in two countries - Bulgaria and Estonia, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, quoted by Investor.bg.

The National Association of Merchants and Carriers of Fuel in Bulgaria announced on 7th of January that the small fuel traders will launch protests entitled "Yellow vests". The reason is the law on the administrative regulation of the trade with petroleum and petroleum products.

More than 1,000 tons of poor fuel have been withdrawn from the market this year after inspections by the State Agency for Metrology and Technical Surveillance. The imposed sanctions amount to over BGN 1 mln, bTV announced.

4.4% of the verified fuel during the year had quality deviations. More than 1,500 samples were collected in one third of the country's gas stations.

The Finance Ministry is improving its supervision of fuel stations in a bid to crack down on rampant tax evasion and fuel smuggling, by forcing businesses to send a report at the end of each working day with the sum of all transactions made via their cash registers.