Chains in the fuel market are raising diesel prices almost simultaneously.
It is the head offices that make the decisions, not the petrol stations, writes Nettavisen.
When one petrol station raises its prices, it takes only minutes before a competing station nearby follows suit.
On the last Monday in September, 147 petrol stations in Oslo and Akershus were charging over 31 kroner per litre for diesel. This is according to figures from the Drivstoffappen app, which also recorded the highest diesel price it has ever registered: a full 31.49 kroner.
Circle K, Uno-X and Esso confirm that prices are set centrally. It therefore makes no difference whether the petrol stations are in Kirkenes or Oslo. Only YX, which is owned by independent operators, sets its own prices.
Petrol station operators say they have to report their competitors’ prices several times a day. The prices are fed into software designed to calculate the ‘optimal’ price. According to Nettavisen, Esso and St1 use the Kalibrate software, whilst Circle K uses PDI. The chains will not comment on how the systems are used.
The Norwegian Competition Authority is critical of this coordination.
“A faster response to price changes can weaken the incentives to reduce prices and make it easier to implement price rises,” says Special Adviser Stig Torje Bjugn. He believes that conditions in the fuel market facilitate what the Authority refers to as tacit coordination.
The chains deny that they are cooperating. “The fact that changes occur in quick succession shows how open the market is. It does not mean that the chains are in contact with one another”, writes Circle K.
Esso, for its part, believes that price monitoring is not illegal.
The pattern is nevertheless familiar. On 31 March, diesel prices across the country rose by almost identical amounts a few hours before the tax cut came into force, according to the Drivstoffappen app.
