Fuels continue to rise and reach their highest since the beginning of May

MADRID, 20 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The average price of fuels has continued its upward trend this week, with a rise of up to 1%, and has reached its maximum since the beginning of May.

Specifically, the average price of gasoline stands at 1.602 euros per liter this week, after rising 0.97%, and exceeds that level of 1.6 euros for the first time since May, according to data from the European Union Oil Bulletin collected by Europa Press.

For its part, the average price of diesel also chains its second consecutive week of rises (0.56%) to reach 1.453 euros per liter, a level that has not marked the same since the first week of May.

Despite these new increases, the price of a liter of diesel remains below the 1,479 euros that it amounted to before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine due to the Russian invasion that began on February 24, 2022, but not gasoline, which already exceeds 1,594 euros per liter that it marked on those dates.

However, both fuels remain far from the highs they reached around a year ago, when in July gasoline reached 2,141 euros and diesel 2.1 euros.

With these prices, filling an average tank of 55 liters of diesel currently amounts to about 79.9 euros, compared to 97.4 euros - about 17.5 euros more - that it cost at this point last year, including the discount of 20 cents per liter that was in force a year ago.

In the case of gasoline, filling an average 55-liter tank currently costs about 88.1 euros, almost 12.5 euros less than the 100.4 euros it cost in the same period in 2022.

Last year, due to the escalation in the price of fuels due to the energy crisis caused by the war, the minimum discount of 20 cents per liter of fuel for all citizens, approved by the Government as part of its response plan to the impact of the war in Ukraine, was in force.

Likewise, with this, diesel adds 22 weeks in a row below the price of gasoline. Thus, it remains in the usual situation before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which caused the price of diesel to be more expensive than gasoline continuously from August 2022 until mid-February of this year, when that dynamic was broken.

In this context, this Thursday the barrel of Brent, a reference in Europe, was trading below 80 dollars, while the American Texas is trading at around 76 dollars.

The price of fuels depends on multiple factors, such as its 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.

With these levels, the price of 95 unleaded gasoline in Spain remains below the average for the European Union, located at 1.738 euros per liter, and for the euro area, with an average price of 1.794 euros.

In the case of diesel, the price in Spain is also lower than the EU average, which is 1,589 euros, and the euro zone, where it marks a price of 1,617 euros.