Fuel consumption hits new record

Despite increases in the costs of diesel and petrol, fuel sales at the pumps have hit a new record.

In March alone consumers consumed €504,000 tonnes of fuel as the price per litre has already gone beyond €2 according to the Portuguese energy sector regulator ERSE which revealed that in March some 105,000 tonnes of petrol was consumed, representing an increase of 45% on February. The last time it was so high was in August 2019.
Diesel consumption by families and companies was even higher, topping the 500,000 tonnes mark for the first time to 504,000 tonnes — an increase of 36% on February and above pre-pandemic levels.
The increased consumption was registered in a month in which the price of petrol increased 7.6% and diesel 11.3%, both costing over €2 a litre. High prices were caused by the invasion by Russia of Ukraine on 24 February and pushed the price of a barrel of Brent crude to US$100.
Kerosene or jet fuel didn’t suffer quite the same increases. In March, according to data supplied by the ERSE to ECO Online, 87,000 tonnes were consumed, up 16% on February, but still far from pre-pandemic amounts in the summer of 2019 when tourism records in Portugal hit new records and Kerosene consumption stood at 167,000 tonnes.
Looking at the Portuguese market as a whole (petrol, diesel, jet fuel, LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) and other fuels), a total of 763,000 tonnes of fuel were consumed in March, up 33% on February.