Average Fuel Prices Keep Rising In Spain With Millions of Motorists Due To Drive Home After Their Holidays

THE average price of fuel in Spain has increased for the seventh consecutive week.

According to the latest data published this Thursday, August 24, by the European Union Oil Bulletin, petrol has risen by one per cent in the last seven days, to stand at €1,709/litre. This is the highest price since the end of November 2022.

Diesel shows an increase of 0.94 per cent in the last week, reaching €1.601/litre, a level not seen since the penultimate week of last February. Today’s price means that diesel has now been cheaper than petrol for 27 consecutive weeks.

Millions of motorists will be heading home at the end of August

With millions of motorists in Spain preparing to drive home again from their summer holidays at the end of the month, these increases are the last thing they need.

Since the start of July, the price of a litre of petrol has accumulated an increase of 7.34 per cent, while that of diesel has risen by 11.3 per cent. However, they are both well below the highs of July 2022, when petrol hit €2,141/litre and diesel was at €2.1/litre.

At today’s levels, to fill an average 55-litre fuel tank with petrol would cost around €94 euros, compared to €87.30 at this time last year, when the government discount of 20 cents per litre was still in force.

In the case of diesel, it would cost around €88 to fill the same size of tank, just 30 cents less than the €88.30 of this week in August 2022.

There are some service stations selling cheaper fuel

There are some low-cost service stations where it is possible to find petrol at cheaper prices, according to lasprovincias.es. These include Jaén, Córdoba, Valencia, Sevilla and Toledo, where some stations are selling the fuel at €1,48/litre.

In Navarra, petrol can be sourced for as little as €1.25, with levels of €1.32 in Melilla and €1.39 in Ceuta. Tenerife and Gran Canaria have different taxation rates, so some stations sell petrol at €1.08/litre.

Similarly, one service station in Jaén is selling diesel at €1,001/litre and another in Murcia at €1,078/litre, while in the Canary Islands, you can buy it for €1.07/litre the news outlet reported.

Fuel prices depend on multiple factors

This Thursday a barrel of Brent, a benchmark in Europe, was trading at $83, while the American Texas was trading at around $78.80.

The price of fuels depends on multiple factors, such as their specific price (independent of that of oil), the evolution of crude oil, taxes, the cost of raw materials and logistics, and gross margins. In addition, the evolution in the price of crude oil is not transferred directly to fuel prices, but rather with a time lag.

Fuel in Spain is cheaper than in the EU and Eurozone countries

With these current levels, the price of 95 unleaded petrol in Spain remains below the average for the European Union, where it stands at €1.817/litre. In the Eurozone, the average price is €1.877/litre.

In the case of diesel, the price in Spain is also lower than the EU average, which is €1,718 euros, as well as the Eurozone, where a litre stands at €1,756.

With fuel prices in Spain increasing for the time being, have you the reader maybe changed your driving habits to accommodate these rises or are you just filling up the tank as before?
Feel free to drop us a comment.