After a stretch of declines that began at the end of September and lingered as last year closed at the year’s lowest points, prices showed a turn higher as 2024 opened. The market saw a modest uptick that interrupted a three-month downward trend, signaling a potential easing of the previous slide.
Specifically, data gathered from the European Union Petroleum Bulletin shows the average price per liter for gasoline finishing the first week of the year with thirteen consecutive drops, yet marginally higher at 1.534 euros after a 0.19% rise. This brief rebound marks a recovery within a broader pattern of price adjustments observed across the bloc.
Diesel, for its part, ended a twelve-week decline with an average price of 1.493 euros per liter, up by 0.07 percent from the prior week. The shift hints at a stabilization after a prolonged period of downward pressure on both fuels.
Consequently, both fuel types are halting the downward spiral that had pushed gasoline down by nearly 15 percent and diesel by more than 13 percent over recent months.
Gasoline still below prewar levels
Despite this modest rebound, the price per liter of gasoline remains below the level seen before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, which stood at 1.592 euros. It remains above the prior year’s mid-range, hovering around 1.479 euros per liter in the latest readings.
Moreover, both fuels stay well below the peak values reached in the summer of 2022. In July, gasoline peaked at 2.141 euros per liter, and diesel hit about 2.0 euros per liter during that explosive period.
Gas tank costs today versus 2022
At current prices, filling a typical 55-liter gasoline tank averages around 84.37 euros. That figure is nearly three euros higher than the same period last year when a 20-cent-per-liter discount that applied for much of 2022 had already faded, yielding roughly 81.4 euros.
For vehicles, the cost to fill an average 55-liter diesel tank amounts to about 82.11 euros. This represents roughly a 74-euro increase from the same stretch in 2023, when the price difference was smaller and the market dynamics looked different.
In turn, diesel has continued to trail gasoline in price for 45 consecutive weeks. However, this aligns with the usual pattern observed before the Ukraine crisis, when diesel typically carried a premium to gasoline from August 2022 through mid-February 2023, a dynamic that shifted as global markets evolved.
Fuel prices hinge on multiple drivers, including the specific price of fuel independent of crude oil, shifts in crude oil costs, taxes, input materials, logistics, and margins. Importantly, changes in crude oil prices tend to influence pump prices with a lag rather than instantly.
Spain’s prices sit below the European average
Within the current framework, 95 octane unleaded gasoline in Spain stays below the European Union average, where the price sits around 1.668 euros per liter and the euro area average is near 1.721 euros.
Likewise, diesel in Spain remains cheaper than both the EU and euro zone averages, which stand at approximately 1.633 euros and 1.666 euros per liter respectively. The broader pattern shows Spain maintaining a price position below the continental benchmarks on both fuel types.