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Because of the lack of documentation, the Auditor General in Malta questioned the agreements on hedging fuel with State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) signed at “ministerial direction,” The Malta Independent writes.

According to the article, the opposition has criticized the government insisting that Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi has a lot to answer for. In comments made to The Malta Independent, Mizzi stressed that he simply suggested SOCAR as a possible supplier and did not force the Maltese side to reach an agreement with the company.

An analysis of Enemalta Corporation and SOCAR’s hedging activity was published at the request of the opposition, where circumstances contradicting the minister’s words were found.

“Konrad Mizzi gives millions worth of contracts to Azerbaijan's SOCAR by ‘ministerial direction.’ This stinks,” opposition leader Simon Busuttil wrote on Twitter.

As the article has it, Enemalta made a €3.1 million profit on crude oil hedging in the first nine months of the year, but during the period of dramatic fall in international oil prices the corporation had an overall loss of €8.6 million between October and December. As for unleaded petrol and diesel, the company had a loss of €5.5 million during the last four months of the year. Thanks to currency hedging the corporation could recover €8 million. 

The deals with SOCAR made it possible for the corporation to reduce the price of petrol by €0.02 per litre, whilst keeping the price of diesel stable. But the NAO expressed reservations on the way the decision to hedge petrol and diesel requirements for the second half of 2014 was taken. However, the National Audit Office concluded that the documentation concerning the deals with SOCAR was incomplete. The Energy Minister of the country said that “a lesson was learnt.” 

“However, the fact that fuel prices stayed put during the last few months of 2014 even as they fell in the rest of Europe had been the cause of political controversy,” the outlet writes.