The EU stops importing diesel from Russia from today

As of this very Sunday, the Member States of the European Union will stop buying diesel from Russia within the framework of the sanctions imposed on the country led by Vladimir Putin due to the invasion of Ukraine, although the Government assures that the supply is assured. Another thing is how it will affect the price of fuel, which will depend on the balance between supply and demand and its international price.

Sources from the Spanish Association of Petroleum Product Operators (AOP) acknowledge that “many analysts” point out that the absence of Russian diesel “will mean an increase in the international price of diesel” because the country is one of the main exporters of crude oil and already refined diesel. Added to this is the fact that there are “many countries” that are highly dependent on Russian diesel. The recovery in demand from China after the lifting of the measures and restrictions linked to Covid-19 will also influence, and a lot. However, this demand pressure from China may be offset by the slowdown in other countries, which will reduce diesel purchases.

«There are many factors and, therefore, it cannot be said that from February 5 the price of diesel will rise so much. It will be necessary to see how all these factors are balanced ”, sources from the AOP have valued.

One of the aspects in which they affect is that the supply in Spain is guaranteed due to the fact that between 2008 and 2012 around 7,000 million euros were invested in the country in national refineries to make them more “flexible and competitive”, which it did not occur in the rest of Europe, according to EP.

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge also stresses that Spain has “a good diversification of imported crude oil”. «Spanish refineries, unlike a large number of European ones, have made strong investments to face situations like the current ones and are prepared to process different types of crude oil and origins, with the capacity to process crude oils different from those of Russia. ». There are 42 days of strategic reserves owned by Cores (Corporación de Reservas Estratégicas de Productos Petrolíferos) with direct control of the Administration and other security reserves in the industry,” they added.

For a decade Spain has had a net export balance of gasoline and diesel, so the sanctions on imports of crude oil and oil products from Russia, by themselves, “should not pose any problem to the supply.” However, you can “suffer high international prices.”

In the last week the price of diesel in Spain increased by 1% in relation to the previous seven days, to stand at 1.7 euros per liter, according to data from the European Union Oil Bulletin. In addition, since the beginning of the year the average price of diesel in Spain has increased by 2.6% and filling an average 50-liter tank with this fuel is 14 euros more expensive than a year ago, that is, 20%. further.

The latest complete annual data from Cores on diesel imports in Spain correspond to 2021, the year in which Russia was the third largest supplier of diesel with a total of 771,000 tons, 9.1% of the total imported.