The liberalization of the fuel network "would only have costs and no benefits". Indeed, it would be a "real expropriation of productive assets". The Unione Petrolifera also takes the field against the measures that the Government is trying to develop in the liberalization chapter. And it does so through the mouth of its president, Pasquale De Vita. As far as the oil sector is concerned, yours is a rejection in no uncertain terms.
"As well as worrying", in addition to the crisis that the refining sector is going through, "these hypothesized liberalization measures for the fuel network that should be launched in the next few days by the Government", writes De Vita to the deputies of the Production Activities commission of the Chamber in a document filed as part of the investigation into the refining crisis in Italy.
“If these measures were confirmed in regulatory documents – he continues – the immediate consequence would be an acceleration of the process of disengagement not only from distribution, but also from refining, by various operators. The idea of proceeding with a sort of forced sale of the plants and the elimination of the exclusivity rights on the plants owned by the companies appears completely unjustified from both a legal and an economic point of view”. In short, "we would be faced with a real expropriation of productive assets, which would represent a unicum among Western economies", accuses the president of the oil union.
And that's not all: “The loss of exclusivity would not allow the property to remunerate present and future investments, nor the sustainability of operating costs. A liberalization that would only have costs and no benefits”.
So what are the paths to take? De Vita formulates a range of proposals: 1) to facilitate output flexibility of the plants to be converted; 2) provide for harmonized procedures for the transformation of refineries; 3) conditions on the control of tax legislation similar to those present in the rest of Europe; 4) eliminate or simplify the control mechanisms of the Robin tax; 5) block any further increase in the use of biofuels foreseen at Community level; 6) a strong action on the community tables to avoid elements of penalization of the competitiveness of the refining industry; 7) measures aimed at rebalancing the competitive advantages of Asian and Middle Eastern refineries.
