March 17 (SeeNews) - Slovenia plans to start talks on importing oil from Qatar, in order to reduce its energy dependence on Russia, local media reported.
A Slovenian delegation will visit Qatar next week to discuss possible energy supplies, public broadcaster RTV quoted infrastructure minister Jernej Vrtovec as saying on Wednesday.
"The country has enough oil in its commodity reserves. It is more worrying that an embargo on oil of Russian origin would be imposed. This means that crude oil should be imported from other countries. Therefore, we urgently need to diversify the supply of oil resources," Vrtovec said.
On March 15, Slovenia's government introduced a 30-day cap on retail prices of petrol and diesel to tame their increase due to disruptions in the petroleum products market and large fluctuations in non-seasonal prices. The ceiling for 95-octane unleaded petrol was set at 1.503 euro ($1.656) per litre, while the diesel price was capped at 1.541 euro per litre.
($ = 0.90549 euro)