ROME — Tamoil could become the latest fuel company to join Italy’s privately driven price cap, as the government tries to contain surging fuel costs while facing warnings that the emergency scheme is distorting the market.
The Italian government said talks between the prime minister’s office and the Libyan government are “well advanced” to secure Tamoil’s participation, after Q8, Eni and IP moved to cap prices at their filling stations.
Why it matters: Bringing Tamoil into the scheme would broaden a patchwork response that has already pushed average pump prices lower. But independent retailers say the mechanism is squeezing their margins — while key sectors including fishing, agriculture and road haulage remain outside the discounts.
- Average self-service petrol prices fell to €2.111 per liter, from €2.126 on Tuesday, according to the Industry Ministry’s fuel price observatory.
- Diesel fell to €2.316 per liter from €2.335.
- Eni, IP and Q8 together account for 55% of the Italian market.
- The discounts apply to retail filling stations, but not to the networks supplying road transport, agriculture and fishing.
Zoom in: The Tamoil talks The government said “interlocutions between the Presidency of the Council and the Libyan government are very well advanced” to encourage Tamoil to join the fuel initiative.
- Its potential entry would add another operator to a system that has so far depended on individual companies voluntarily lowering prices, rather than on a government-imposed national ceiling.
Between the lines: The price-cap paradox. The intervention is already producing an unusual market dynamic.
- Independent filling stations — Italy’s so-called “white pumps” — buy petrol and diesel from the same large groups that have introduced the caps.
- As Eni, IP and Q8 cut prices at their own retail networks, they attract more customers. But smaller operators say reduced availability on the wholesale market is pushing up the prices they pay for fuel, eroding their margins and leaving them unable to match the majors at the pump.
The result: Prices at some large branded stations are now lower than at independent retailers.
- “There must also be a degree of responsibility on the part of those managing the supply chain, starting with the producers themselves,” Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said.
The policy question. Fuel retailers are now pushing Rome toward a different model.
- Fegica, a filling-station operators’ union, argues that price caps have been used elsewhere in Europe when set by governments — citing Belgium and Luxembourg and saying Germany has also announced such a measure.
- “But if it is imposed by a private operator that is also a market leader, imbalances inevitably emerge,” Fegica said.
- Fegica and Faib-Confesercenti have submitted a proposal to the Senate for a public price cap, arguing that “only in this way could there be equitable measures.”
The gap: Fishing and business fuel. The current discounts do not cover all fuel users.
- Confcooperative Agroalimentare e Pesca says diesel for fishing vessels has risen by as much as 200% since the start of the war in Iran.
- In Porto Empedocle, Sicily, fishermen say they will not go to sea tomorrow because of fuel costs.
- “Rather than going into debt, it is better to stay still,” they said.
What we’re watching: The immediate question is whether talks with Libya bring Tamoil into the scheme, expanding the number of companies offering capped prices.
- The broader test is whether Rome can keep using voluntary discounts by major fuel companies without deepening the pressure on independent retailers — and whether it extends its response to sectors that currently receive no relief.
