Nightmare at service stations: fuels rise up to 15 cents in less than a week

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is already being felt strongly in the pockets of consumers. In just one week, fuel prices have registered a sharp increase at service station posts and have reached levels never seen before in our country. Filling the tank has become more expensive in just 7 days by about ten euros, which represents an unprecedented increase due to the fear of a shortage of supply that is already reflected in the markets.

According to data from the Geoportal of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, in Madrid, in just one week, the most expensive service station has gone from charging a liter of diesel from 1.63 euros to 1.80 euros, which means 17 cents more. In this way, filling the tank has gone from costing 89.65 euros to 99 euros.

Along the same lines, the price of gasoline has moved, the most expensive point in the Spanish capital has gone from charging a liter of fuel at 1.72 euros to taking the maximum price to 1.90 euros per liter. In this way, filling the deposit means facing a disbursement that goes from 94.6 euros to 104.5 euros.

Although the average fuel prices will register a predictably lower increase – we will have to wait until the middle of next week to know the data – the strong rise in prices has also been felt in a similar way in other countries.

The significant jump in fuel prices occurs in a week in which the International Energy Agency has announced its intention to release oil reserves of 60 million barrels, which is added to that agreed last month of November by the United States of 50 million barrels due to the sharp drop in its reserves.

Supply problems have also increased due to the fear of banks to finance operations with Russian oil companies that have been reflected throughout the week with a sharp drop in prices for Ural oil. Both Chinese and Indian oil companies have been following the drop in prices, but in the end it was Shell that closed a purchase of Russian fuel.

The problems also extend to the ports, since, for example, in the United Kingdom there are longshoremen who have refused to participate in the unloading of Russian fuel or even a high-level delegation from the United States has participated in a visit to Venezuela.

Likewise, the negotiations to facilitate an agreement with Iran that could serve to recover part of the country’s oil production or greater use of Libya or Iraq could contribute to easing fuel prices in the medium term. In fact, this past week the simple expectation of a return to the Iranian market allowed crude oil prices to relax slightly on Friday.

Tax Review

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has assured that he will do everything possible so that our companies and our citizens do not become hostages of Putin, but these strong increases are recorded at a time when an increase in taxation is being processed energy to align it with European environmental policies and that would mean an even higher increase in fuel prices.

The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, has assured that for the moment there will be no immediate increases in taxes, but the White Paper on tax reform proposes, like the European directives, to equate the taxation of diesel with gasoline, increase taxes on fuel, a tax on plane tickets, general tolls, a municipal tax on traffic to access cities and the reduction of taxation applied to electricity, eliminating the Tax on the Value of Production at 7% .

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will meet tomorrow with the General Secretaries of the CCOO and UGT, Unai Sordo and Pepe Álvarez, and the Presidents of CEOE and Cepyme, Antonio Garamendi and Gerardo Cuerva, respectively, to seek a “great income pact ” with which to avoid an inflationary spiral that undermines the purchasing power of families and puts economic recovery at risk.