Gasoline is 0.02 euros from its historical maximum: filling the tank costs 24% than a year ago

Filling the tank of our car is a 24% more expensive than a year ago. And, although gasoline is two euro cents away from exceeding its all-time high and its cost per 100 kilometers is the most expensive of all available fuels, gasoline has not been the most affected energy at the beginning of the year.

To confirm these data, it is only necessary to refer to the report regularly published by the European Comission on fuel prices. In it we can read that the average price of gasoline in Spain is 1,520 euros/liter (eliminating the weighted average that the EU makes in its calculations), just two cents from the historical maximum marked in September 2012.

This means that to fill a 50 liter tank, a driver has to use 76 euros every time you go to a service station. Recently, the TO FATHER It was already calculated that if this increase was maintained throughout the year, traveling 20,000 kilometers would entail an extra cost of 440 euros compared to 2021.

And there are worse situations

But although gasoline is touching historical highs, fuels such as diesel or CNG are also suffering a severe increase in their prices. In a year it is 27% more expensive to fill a diesel tank and, for 20,000 kilometers, the increase is 340 euros at the end of the year.

But the fuel that has become more expensive is CNG. Owners of vehicles powered by Compressed Natural Gas have seen their prices skyrocket in recent months. The data from the OCU ensure that the cost per 100 kilometers has skyrocketed from 3.8 to 8.7 euros and that, at the end of the year, a driver would pay 980 euros more than in 2021 in case you travel 20,000 kilometers.

Future forecasts are also discouraging. The increase in demand with the normalization of trips after overcoming the toughest months for Omicron may raise the price of a barrel of Brent above 110 euros, according to Goldman Sachs, very far from the 70-75 euros in which it was installed in the month of December. When this article is being written, the price is 88,09 euros and the maximum of the last month was set on January 1 at 91.29 euros.

Nor does natural gas have a few months ahead that are too encouraging. The geopolitical tensions with Russia and the extreme European dependence on the Asian market led to a peak of 180 euros/MGh at TTF index (the most used in the European market). At the moment we are at 78.3 euros/MWh, but on February 21, 2021 a price of 15.50 euros/MWh was registered.

The most direct consequences

This context has raised the IPC up to 6% in the month of January (6.5% in December), leaving the underlying CPI (the one that does not take fuel or unprocessed food into account) at 2.4%. In the month of January 2021, the IPC stood at 0.5% and the core one at 0.6%.

And ordinary citizens have noticed this rise in prices when going to service stations and supermarkets, but the rise in natural gas prices has put on the table the possibility of a supply break, with German and French factories temporarily paralyzing their activity. In fact, the industry demand of natural gas has reached drop 9.8%, one of the reasons that have allowed some relaxation in its price.

Photo | Julia Avamotive