Four years after the home confinement that plunged fuel consumption, the data is still below pre-pandemic levels, although little by little a normalization of the same is visible. According to data from the Corporation of Strategic Reserves of Petroleum Products (CORES), the use of automobile fuels stood at 18.97 million tons between January and August 2024, compared to 19.33 million in the same period of 2019less than 2% below pre-pandemic levels. Compared to the first eight months of 2023, fuel use has grown by 2.85%.
This is mainly due to the great boost in gasoline. The Spanish vehicle fleet mostly uses diesel and it represented ten years ago, in 2014, about 70% of new registrationsa trend that has been turning in favor of gasoline and hybrid vehicles in recent years, which has reduced their share of new registrations to below 10%, according to September data from automobile employers’ associations.
Gasoline consumption has increased accordingly 21.3% compared to 2019from 3.58 million tons to 4.35 million tons. On the other hand, diesel is still more than a million tons below its pre-pandemic usage levels and between January and August of this year 14.5 million liters of diesel have been released, a 7.1% below pre-covid levels.
In addition to the normalization of activities after the pandemic, fuel users have also benefited from gasoline and diesel prices that are much more controlled than in recent years. If during confinement the price of gasoline was close to 1 euro per liter during the energy crisis, its value catapulted more than 100% to reach a maximum of 2.14 euros/liter, according to the EU Petroleum Bulletin.
However, after reaching very stressed prices, the cost of hydrocarbons has been reduced considerably until it is below the levels prior to the rise in prices after the invasion of Ukraine. Specifically, in mid-February 2022 – the war broke out on February 24 – prices stood at 1.57 euros/liter for gasoline and 1.46 euros/liter for diesel; while in the week of October 14 of this year the cost of these products has been at 1.45 euros/liter and 1.38 euros/liter, respectively.
Likewise, the collection of Tax Agency through the Special Hydrocarbon Tax has remained constant in recent years. In gross terms at the end of 2023 – the latest data available – the State collected 12,593 million euros, compared to 12,597 million in 2022, in line with the 12,653 million that the Treasury collected the year before the pandemic. However, in net terms -reducing returns- This year’s tax revenues have reached 6,149 million euros, nearly 1,000 million less than the previous year, but almost 33% more than the 4,624 million received by the Tax Agency in 2019.
The awakening of the ‘bios’
Along with the growth in the consumption of conventional fuels, there has also been a notable increase in the sale of biofuels. Between January and August of this year, utilization multiplied by 11, from 2,151 tons to 27,772 tons, mostly of biodiesel, which is the main source of consumption.
However, its use continues to maintain a marginal position and is still not in line with how consumption evolved before 2020. Data from the Corporation show that the application of bios is 51.9% lower than between January and August of 2019, when They consumed 57,824 tons. Furthermore, its proportion with respect to total sales is minimal, 0.3% of all tons burned in the first eight months of 2019 and 0.15% between January and August of this year.
Renewable fuel is being one of the big bets of national oil companies and, from the sector, they assure that the rebound is associated with the recovery of hydrocarbon consumption after the disaster of the pandemic. The current regulations established a progressive evolution of the proportion of renewable fuels that must be mixed with conventional fuels. In this sense, 10.5% of the energy content of road vehicle refueling must be green, a proportion that this year has been set at 11% and which will rise in stages to 12% in 2026.
Another reason that knowledgeable sources point to is a sharp drop in biofuel prices. This fact has even caused Shell to stop the construction of one of the largest biofuel plants in Europe last July, which was called to produce 850,000 tons of biofuel due to the weakness of market conditions. They have been under pressure in recent months due to weaker demand in the rest of Europe, even after Sweden reduced a biofuels mandate, and increased supplies from the US.
Bioethanol stagnates and its sales abroad fall by 34%
Faced with the increase in biodiesel, the stagnation of bioethanol. The green version of gasoline has reduced its consumption in year-on-year terms. Specifically, between January and August its consumption fell 7% compared to the previous year, while that of biodiesel has multiplied by 12.
The consumption of bioethanol in Spain, unlike biodiesel which is used by a large part of the road freight transport fleet, still has a long way to go. This is despite the fact that Spain has competitive companies in this segment. However, most of the flow from these companies is directed towards foreign markets due to the low penetration of bioethanol. These sales, however, fell 34% in terms of volume until June. Data from the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) show that in the first half of 2023, 485,908 mt were transferred, compared to 318,994 until this June.
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