War in Iran: gasoline has already increased by more than 10 cents in one week

The consequences were not long in coming. SP95-E10, the gasoline most consumed by the French, is selling this Friday on average 10 cents more expensive than a week ago before the start of the war in the Middle East, according to government figures.

Around 4:30 p.m., around half (4,771) of the service stations in the region had communicated to Bercy their prices at the pump. The data collected is published in open access.

SP95-E10 thus sold on average on Friday at 1.82 euros per liter, compared to 1.72 on February 27, the day before the first American Israeli strikes on Iran, an increase of almost 6%. This corresponds to an increase of around 5 euros for the 50 liter tank of a small car.

No shortage at the moment

The increase in diesel is even more marked: it sells on Friday at 1.98 euros per liter on average, compared to around 1.72 euros on February 27, an increase of 26 cents (+ 15%). The SP98 is on Friday at 1.92 euros per liter, 10 cents more than on February 27.

France is currently far from shortages. As of 3:05 p.m. Friday, only 2% of gas stations were facing a fuel shortage, according to the government report.

Under pressure from the political opposition to contain fuel prices, the government defended its action on Thursday, refuting that the State was the “big winner” in the situation.

Oil prices soared to record highs this week, with investors no longer hiding their concerns over the paralysis of a large part of the flow of hydrocarbons from the Gulf. The barrel of Brent, the international benchmark for oil, closed at $92.69 this Friday, an increase of more than 8% compared to the day before, and 27.88% over the week.

“There is a lot of oil on the market,” however, the International Energy Agency wanted to reassure on Friday. But the executive director of the IEA, Fatih Birol, to recognize a “serious logistical problem” in transporting oil due to the war, but there is “no shortage”, he insisted to the press in Brussels.

The government cannot block prices

The head of deputies RN Marine Le Pen proposed on Wednesday to reduce taxes on fuel to compensate for the increases. The chairman of the Finance Committee of the Assembly Éric Coquerel (LFI) had asked the government to “consider blocking the prices” of gasoline.

For the government, there is no question of acting at this stage on taxes which the State needs and which, it assures, do not depend so much on the price of energy. The Minister for Energy Maud Bregeon considered it “inconceivable” to reduce VAT and TICPE, because this would lead to a hole of almost 20 billion euros in the state budget.

The question of energy prices has regularly ignited the political debate since the energy crisis of 2022, linked to the war in Ukraine. Diesel and SP95-E10 gasoline had then exceeded the psychological threshold of 2 euros per liter.