Fuel prices are skyrocketing. Petrol has an average suggested retail price of over €2 per liter and diesel is also more expensive than ever before. The big questions now are: what is the cause and what could happen in the future?
At the time of writing, the average national suggested retail price for a liter of petrol is €2,035. Every day there is about a euro cent on top. NU.nl spoke to some experts about expectations for the future and how it could have come to this. “Three scenarios are conceivable,” says director Paul van Selms of the consumer collective UnitedConsumers, which receives the national recommended prices at the pump daily from the oil companies. He outlines two logical scenarios and one specter: “We’ll stay around $2, the price will drop back below $2, or we’ll move on to – just name a number – $3.” The latter would happen if the oil price were twice as high as it is now, so around $160 a barrel. “Abroad the price at the pump would then double. Not here, because half of the price is determined by taxes. In this case, that has a dampening effect.”
According to VNPI, the industry association for refining and gas stations, the high pump prices are also partly due to taxes. “VAT and excise duties were increased in 2019,” says director Erik Koster. “But the oil price is the main cause and the euro-dollar exchange rate and supply and demand play a role.” According to Koster, there is something else going on in the Netherlands that makes gasoline more expensive. “The introduction of E10 and the demands placed on it has also made the product more expensive. So it’s a combination of factors that makes the gasoline price so high, while the oil price is just over $80.” According to Koster, the capacity of the refineries, where oil is used to make gasoline, has no influence on the price: “There is still overcapacity.”
Solution?
There is therefore no single solution to bring prices down. In the first instance, it mainly depends on the oil price, which in turn depends on the oil-producing states: “For the time being, they will stick to their strategy of increasing production slowly”, says Van Selms. So it doesn’t look like there will be any improvement in that regard. Then there is what is determined here in the Netherlands. Van Selms can imagine that the government will lower the tax on fuel if the price of petrol continues to rise. “That is another button that we can turn ourselves, which is not possible in other countries.”
Until then, owners of cars with a combustion engine are expensive, especially here in the Netherlands. With our southern and eastern neighbors you spend roughly 30 to 40 euro cents less per liter.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl