Filling station

Excise officials have ordered a gas station to close for two years after finding it was selling adulterated fuel and had an illegal storage tank.

In a statement, the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) said that during an on-site inspection, its officers found a parked tanker which was about to deliver fuel to the filling station's tanks.

New regulations combating fuel smuggling and adulteration are set to go into effect next month. The legislation foresees that gas stations will be closed for two years if inspectors determine that they are selling adulterated fuel, engaging in smuggling, or tampering with tax receipt issuing procedures.

Lawlessness is widespread in the fuel market, according to a survey by the National Technical University of Athens, whose main findings were presented by Kathimerini on Sunday.

The Slovenian government has extended the existing system of partial regulation of motor fuel and heating oil prices for another year. The regulation is in force for filling stations outside the country's motorway network.

Hungarian oil company MOL has been given the green light from the European Commission to take over OMV Slovenija filling stations after committing to sell 39 stations in Slovenia to the British Shell Group.

The Cyprus Association of Petrol and Liquid Fuels Distributors on Tuesday filed a complaint against four major fuel companies on the island: Petrolina, EKO Cyprus, Coral Energy Products Cyprus, and ExxonMobil Cyprus.

The complaint accuses these four companies of violating the country's 2022 Competition Protection Law.

Tax inspectors have shut down an illegal gas station in Western Attica that sold €18 million worth of fuel since opening in 2010.

An inspection revealed that the filling station did not have an operating license, lacked an input-output monitoring system and issued receipts from a cash register that did not transmit data to the Independent Public Revenue Authority.

Many Greeks, but also Serbs and Romanians living near the Bulgarian border, refuel in Bulgaria, as it is cheaper here. The price of the most common fuels in the neighboring countries is more expensive by between 10 cents and over 1 BGN per liter.

Petrol, the largest fuel retailer on the Slovenian market, has adjusted its logistics to the possible challenges in winter. Having improved its anticipation of spikes in demand following June’s fuel shortages, the company is also prepared to supply more heating oil should it be needed for electricity generation.

"Fuel adulteration is not a new phenomenon, but today the smugglers and those who adulterate fuel have become experts in this game, so it is very difficult to catch them" Athanasios Papadopoulos, vice-president of the Federation of Gasoline Dealers of Greece, pointed out.