In the wake of a very low oil price and a sharp decline in demand, the price of a liter of gasoline is approaching rock bottom. At the pump, about € 1.50 to € 1.55 for a liter of Euro 95 is now charged.
“There is still a few cents off, but it will not and cannot get much lower,” said Paul van Selms of United Consumers (UC). People who are still on the road benefit from it. Since UC keeps track of the petrol price, the average liter price has not dropped below € 1.05. “It will never be, because that is about all the amount that goes to the government per liter in the form of tax and excise”, explains Van Selms. “The times of one euro for one liter will not come back.” That was in 2001.
In Italy, some large petrol station chains have decided to temporarily close a number of cases. Van Selms also sees that happening in the Netherlands. “At a certain point, the turnover no longer outweighs the costs,” he says. This mainly concerns the decreased sales in the associated stores, where the pump station holders have higher margins.
Incidentally, the prices of diesel and LPG are also at very low levels. For diesel, the liter price comes down to roughly € 1.25 and that of LPG is around € 0.65.