The situation is not going to improve.
The price of fuel has only risen since the beginning of the year (and that without taking into account the elimination of 20 cents in aid from the state), but things are likely to get worse, especially for diesel , which will increase its rates even more from February 5.
The reason? The European Union has issued new sanctions for Russia for the invasion of Ukraine that directly fall under the ban on buying Russian oil products.
This is in addition to other restrictions that have been in place since December, such as the cap of 60 dollars per barrel and the embargo on crude oil from Russia that arrives by boat, creating the perfect storm for any driver to notice in his pocket, especially those who have a diesel vehicle.
The objective of this new measure is clear, to try to stifle Russia economically, so that it will give up its efforts in Ukraine. However, the reality is that Europe’s dependence on oil from Vladimir Putin’s country is still very high today.
According to calculations, there is a daily difference of 1.3 million barrels of diesel between the needs in the European Union and the crude that is available, so it is necessary to buy them abroad. Russia is one of the countries with the greatest presence in this situation, since in September it supplied 44% of the imports of said fuel.
In this way, the measure that will try to suffocate Russia will result in an even higher rise in diesel prices at European gas stations, which will make filling the car tank even more painful than it is today.
The European employers’ association of the refining sector, Concawe, points to one of the causes of this dependence and, therefore, of the current complicated situation: in order to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies, in the last twelve years they have closed 26 refineries on the continent, which has meant a drop in refining capacity of 18%.
Source: The Reason