Gasoline Price War

The economic crisis brings gasoline stations to the brink of a price war. Paul van Selms of United Consumers says while there is less gasoline consumption, there is a growing number of manned and unmanned gasoline stations. Because of this, many stations start special promotions, which could eventually lead to bankruptcy.

The price of a liter of Euro95 decreased on Wednesday to 1.786 euro, which is 10 cents less than two months ago. Diesel also became almost 10 cents cheaper and now costs 1.448 euro. Because of the introduction of a higher VAT, fuel prices reached a record price in October last year.

The fuel prices also decrease, according to van Selms, because oil price has dropped below the magic border of 100 dollar per barrel. The reason is that demand has decreased worldwide.

Last year 3.6 percent less liters of diesel were sold in the Netherlands, while the sales of gasoline dropped by 3.4 percent. This decrease is not only caused by the bad economic situation. Van Selms thinks that the lower consumption of cars also has a big influence on the demand. “A car bought in 2013 uses half of the gasoline per km compared to a car ten years ago!”