If you have recently filled up at your local gasoline station then your are already aware that the price of fuel at the pumps has gone up.

With total impunity the seeming oligarchy made up of big oil companies have timed the price increase to coincide with when most Spaniards are making long journeys during the Easter holidays. This increase means that it is 5% more expensive to fill your tank than it was last year during Easter.

On the other hand, the price of a barrel of oil has been on the rise since the beginning of the year, incrementing by 30% in the last three and a half months. Brent, for example has reached 70 USD a barrel. The increase in price has a lot to do with the situation in Libya and Venezuela.

The irritation that this move has caused is not so much that pump prices have risen – the price of oil on the world market has risen after all – but that the major distribution companies that own most gasolineras have barefacedly  put prices up on the very first day of the Semana Santa holidays; i.e., Friday the 12th, coinciding with Operación Salida.

Taking a look at diesel the average price of a litre of this type of fuel (the kind most sold in Spain) is 1.23 euros according to the latest report from the Estadística de Productos Petrolíferos CNMC. Twelve months ago the average was 1.17 euros per litre. Petrol, on the other hand, the average price per litre is 1.30 euros, whereas last Easter it was 1.27 euros.

So it is clear that the owners of diesel cars are being hit hardest. This means that the gap in price between these two types of fuel has been reduced to just seven centimes.

Editorial comment: Nobody will admit in governing circles that the general public was duped into buying diesel cars, using the cheaper-fuel argument, only to be informed that within a few years you won’t be able to enter large cities if you have been ‘unlucky’ enough to have fallen for buying a diesel car.

(News: Spain)