The government has spent more than €1.7 million advertising a company with virtually no competition, figures released in parliament on Tuesday showed.

Enemed, the state-run fuel importer and distributor, has benefited from €1,738,122.69 in advertising and marketing funds since 2015.

Enemed was established in 2014 when the Muscat-era government, with Konrad Mizzi as Energy Minister, decided to hive off Enemalta’s fuel division into its own entity.

The company enjoys a virtual monopoly within its market, as it is the only entity that imports and distributes petrol locally. It has some very minor competition within the diesel sector.

Malta’s lack of competition within the fuel sector means pump prices are the same nationwide. It also means Enemed does not need to worry about market share. But data revealed in parliament on Tuesday show that despite that virtual monopoly, Enemed marketers have had hefty budgets to work with.

In 2015, its first full year of operation, Enemed’s advertising budget did not even reach €9,000.

That changed dramatically in the ensuing years. In 2018, just four years later, the company spent more than €440,000 on advertising and marketing.

Enemed has maintained annual six-figure marketing budgets in ensuing years. In 2023, it spent more than €232,000 on marketing and advertising activities. In all, it has spent more than €1.7 million on such activities in the past eight years. By comparison, Enemalta, the state-run energy entity, has spent less than €350,000 on marketing in the same years.

The data provided in parliament does not explain how Enemed spent its marketing budgets. The company is a mainstay in local motorsports, sponsoring many such local events, and its brand has also become far more visible in recent years following a drive to revamp local fuel stations.

The figures were provided by Energy Minister Miriam Dalli in reply to a question by Opposition MP Mark Anthony Sammut. 

In a post on Facebook, Nationalist MEP candidate Peter Agius referred to this article and said that Enemed found it hard to keep its promise to Ħal Farruġ residents who had to contend with the fuel tanks but had yet to see a penny of promised compensation.