Scottish Fuels revises deal to ditch anti-
Public pressure has forced a monopoly petrol wholesaler in the Western Isles offer a new deal in exchange to getting an official probe into its trading practices ditched.
Scottish Fuels says it will allow competitors to use its Stornoway depot -
In addition, it promised not to charge rivals unfair fees for using the terminal which stores bulk fuels arriving from sea tankers.
Scottish Fuels which is owned by Certas Energy has contracts with filling stations requiring them to buy fuel exclusively from them for five years.
Cheaper wholesale prices through rebates are only available to retailers if they agree not to use any rival supplier.
To end the probe, Scottish Fuels has offered the enhanced legally binding commitments in addition to letting any potential competitor draw fuel out of the coastal depot at Loch Carnan, in South Uist, for five years. The terminal is owned by the Ministry of Defence and leased to Scottish Fuels.
The CMA accept these proposals don’t directly affect the price of fuel but could kickstart competition in the market by allowing the entry of rival wholesalers.
Weaker pledges to commit to depot access for just 2.5 years for Stornoway were rejected at a heated public meeting held by the last month.
Many slammed the time limits as being far to short fearing prices would increase once the legal burden was removed from Scottish Fuels.
It was suggested it would closer to ten years before any rival could develop business and build their own storage tanks.
The CMA said it received a “substantial number of comments” over the time limits.
Ann Pope, director of the CMA, said: “We believe that these revised commitments have
the potential to help rival fuel distributors to enter the market and to compete
with Certas for the supply of road fuels to Western Isles filling stations on a long-
A consultation over whether the latest deal is acceptable to islanders is open to 4 June.