The price of gasoline in the United States has reached its highest since 2008 this Sunday, with an average value of 4,009 dollars per gallon or 1,057 dollars per liter, local media reported. According to the American Automobile Association (AAA, for its acronym in English) the average price of gasoline is $4,009 per gallon (3.79 liters), with states like California, where the price has reached $5,288 per gallon, or Utah, where today it is $3,831 per 3.79 liters. The specialized channel CNBC notes that this is the higher price paid for fuel in the United States since July 2008.
The price per gallon has shot up an average of 40 cents in the last week, as as a result of rising oil for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Texas Intermediate (WTI) Oil price closed on Friday (last trading day of the week) with a rise of 7.4% and stood at $115.68. The barrel of reference in the United States accelerated its price increase at the end of a session marked by fear of incidents nuclear power plants in Eastern Europe, and accumulates a revaluation of 25% per week.
Prices, both in the US and Europe, have risen this week to their highest levels in a decade due to fears of a reduction in supply due to the war in eastern Europe. Russia is the largest exporter of crude oil and world oil products, and its economy is now subject to harsh sanctions by the US, Europe and its allies, although these do not cover the energy sector. Experts have also shown their concern about the consequences this may have on the rampant rate of inflation, which is is currently in the US at 7.5%, a level not seen for decades either.
Gas stations anticipate a drop in consumption in Spain
The rebound in the price of Brent oil, a benchmark in Europe, has also led to especially high levels for the price of gasoline in Spain, before which the sector predicts a drop in consumption. The maximums in which fuel prices are found, including gasoline, which for the fourth consecutive week has broken a new record and which, according to the group of gas stations, could reach 2 euros per liter in a month, open the way to a drop in demand. “Among our associates, sales are between 15 and 20% below what would be usual,” the general director of the Confederation of Service Station Entrepreneurs (CEEES), Nacho Rabadán, assures Efe.
According to his story, the service stations have started to buy the most expensive fuel and customers are refueling less, despite the fact that they do not transfer all the price increase to the pump. In fact, he claims that his profit margins, if there are, they stay at 1%. “With high fuel prices, service stations are also suffering because at the moment consumption is down and our billing is down, and the worst thing is that the current context does not augur better times in the short and medium term,” he added to Efe. General Secretary of the Association of Service Station Employers of the Community of Madrid, Víctor García.
However, other sources in the sector note an interest among citizens who pay more attention to the price of fuel in filling the tank before they rise even more. Thus, the general director of the Moure Group, Manel Montero, assures that its network of ‘low cost’ gas stations at the moment “there is no drop in gasoline consumption“In fact, they observe a growth in consumption, which they explain by “families’ attempts to fill the tank” before gasoline or diesel become even more expensive.
The greatest exponent of this attitude was confirmed the day the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on February 24, when, according to the National Association of Automatic Service Stations, some of its associated companies broke sales records in one day. “Last Thursday we broke the refueling record, selling more than 1.7 million liters in one daya figure that we had never seen before, which is why we have reinforced our service in the face of the increase in clients to absorb all the demand that reaches us,” a Ballenoil spokesperson explained to Efe. Manuel Santiago, CEO of Petroprix, also considers that “this situation of rising prices has caused consumers to look for more affordable alternatives, which is causing service stations to automatic gain market share“.
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