Oil Refineries Ltd. (TASE:ORL) and Paz Ashdod Refinery Ltd. are lower prices for refined fuel products following the sharp drop in wholesale fuel prices last month.
Sources inform ''Globes'' that, in September, the refineries will lower the price for gasoline sold to the fuel companies to below the gate price. Paz Ashdod Refinery, controlled by Paz Oil Company Ltd. (TASE:PZOL), will cut the price for gasoline to $1.50 per ton below the gate price. Oil Refineries, controlled by Israel Corp. (TASE: ILCO) and Israel Petrochemical Enterprises Ltd. (TASE:PTCH), has announced a discount of $1 per ton for 95 and 96 octane gasoline. Earlier this week, Oil Refineries chairman Yossi Rosen hinted that the company wanted closer ties with the fuel companies.
Energy market sources believe that the refineries’ decisions to cut prices were made in response to heavy pressure from the fuel companies in recent weeks. “Globes” reported that the fuel companies asked the Ministry of National Infrastructures and Antitrust Authority to investigate whether the two refinery companies had colluded to raise prices. The companies asked the ministry to consider restoring price supervision if the refineries continued to raise prices.
Last month, Oil Refineries raised its wholesale by an average of 2%, and Paz Ashdod Refinery followed suit three days later. The fuel companies lambasted the price hikes, which they feared could cost them tens of millions of shekels a year.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on August 23, 2007
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