The decision taken by the Latvian government and Saeima in June to temporarily postpone the mandatory bio-additive requirement for fuel made no sense, Armands Beiziķis, chairman of the board of SIA “Neste Latvija” said in an interview.
He said that in May and June, when there were discussions on this issue, “Neste” actively sent comments to the Ministry of Economy (ME) that they do not agree with such a decision, especially if it is taken in the middle of the year.
Beiziķis explained that “Neste Latvija” was actively working on the 2023 supply contracts and planned the supply of petroleum products under the currently known conditions for the whole year. Also for 2022 the company had prepared the obligation to add 7% bioadditive to the fuel, but then this decision was changed and the obligation became voluntary.
“Moreover, the effect on the price has not been as great as expected by the government: 12-14 euro cents per litre. The price has decreased by about five cents a litre. Even five cents is a lot on the fuel market and the fuel without the bio-additive it was sold already in July,” said the head of “Neste Latvija”, stating that since July there is only fossil diesel fuel on the Latvian market, which means that the country has abandoned all sustainability requirements green.
