A hundred service stations no longer delivered gasoline or diesel on Wednesday because of sales at a loss, confirms Brafco, the federation of fuel and fuel traders in Sudinfo Thursday. She expects answers from the federal government during the day in the face of soaring oil prices, otherwise she announces “more impactful actions”.
“Across Belgium, we are at around a hundred service stations that no longer deliver petrol or diesel. For heating oil, we now only serve people who have run out of fuel. Orders normal are postponed to next week”, explains Olivier Neirynck technical director of Brafco.
This cascade of walkouts results from the sales at a loss that pump attendants are faced with. Because of the sharp increases, the maximum sale price to the motorist is lower than the purchase price from the supplier. “This Wednesday, we gave 24 hours to the government and more specifically to Ministers Van Der Straeten (Energy) and Dermagne (Economy) to provide adequate solutions to the problem of the Program Contract, namely the removal of the K factor and the temporary removal of the seven-day threshold (of quotations exceeded, editor’s note). In the absence of a response for this Thursday noon, the sector will meet urgently to assess the situation and, if necessary, carry out more impactful actions to make us heard”, warns Olivier Neirynck. There would be talk of a generalized closure in the short term, according to information from the daily. The two ministers are analyzing the measures to be taken, according to the office of the Minister of the Economy, Pierre-Yves Dermagne. The K factor is a factor capped at 1.20 in order to limit excessive price increases or decreases. Normally, it never has any consequences. But the current fluctuations are so strong that it “causes a significant delay in the increased application of prices at the pump”, says Olivier Neirynck.
