Queues are expected at petrol stations today after the central Government confirmed earlier this week that the 20 cents per litre discount on fuel will no longer apply to everybody from tomorrow (January 1st), as it will only apply to certain professional transport sectors. This has started a trade war between major fuel companies who want to keep their clients, and are keen to dissuade them from using low-cost filling stations instead.
The latest bulletin from the EU, published on Thursday, showed that the price of petrol in Spain has returned to levels close to those before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, after falling 1.57% this week to 1.565 euros a litre. On February 7th, it was 1.559 euros. In the Canary Islands, it has now dropped to around a euro a litre.
The price of diesel has also dropped for the ninth consecutive week, to 1.643 euros (1.215 euros a litre in the Canary Islands). The cost of both types of fuel is now far below the peaks they reached in the summer, when petrol was 2.141 euros per litre and diesel 2.1 euros, but they are still 5.81% and 21.97% more expensive than a year ago, respectively.
Despite this, households are still being hit by high inflation and will be looking for the cheapest prices, while major fuel companies want to recuperate their share of the market from low-cost filling stations.
Fuel company discounts:
Repsol plans to extend its own discount of 10 cents per litre on all types of fuel for clients who use its Waylet payment app from January 1st until the end of March, while Cepsa will extend their extra discount during the first quarter of next year to 12 cents.
Cepsa have been offering a discount of 10 cents since April, but are now adding an additional 2 cents for customers who fill up with premium fuels from its Óptima range.
All individual Cepsa customers who use its free Porque Tú Vuelves programme will obtain the discount directly by providing some type of identification (card, app, or ID document).
The company says that between April and December 2022, more than 12 million clients have benefited from these discounts across Spain and the Canary Islands.
