The price of the oil barrel exceeded 124 dollars on foreign markets amid heightening tensions in the Arab world. In Romania, Petrom and Rompetrol are already charging 6 lei/litre (1.5 euros/litre) for petrol.

Forecasts are not optimistic on long term either, with an IMF report published at the end of last week saying the global economy is entering a period where oil will be increasingly difficult to find, with price increases likely to occur. The IMF is not alone in making such forecasts. Erste analysts recently said the oil barrel could reach 150 dollars this year, and did not rule out the 200-dollar mark if Saudi Arabia, the second-largest global oil producer, were in turn caught in the wave of uprisings. In the meantime, violence is continuing in Libya, one of the top 20 oil producers worldwide, with the violence there being in fact the main reason for the oil barrel price increase at the end of last week.

A number of 28 people were killed in Syria on Friday after security forces opened fire on the demonstrators, with hundreds of Egyptians continuing to protest in Cairo against the head of the military institution that has been running the country since Hosni Mubarak's ousting. All these international events have left their mark on the local price of petrol. European statistics show that Romanian oil players are among the quickest to raise prices, with the Romanian market being in the top ten of European countries that raised pump prices between January 3rd 2011 and April 4th 2011. The price of Romanian petrol has increased more than in Austria, Italy, Poland and Bulgaria, countries that are poorer in resources than Romania, which produces about half of what it needs from its own resources.

"We no longer control Petrom. This is a major handicap. We lost this company. Hungary for instance can implement its economic policy through MOL beca