This is how gas stations survive the oil crisis: "There are no certainties"

BarcelonaThe oil sector has lost the hope that the war in Iran will be shortThe fuel sector is, it must be said, a sector with many corners. "Every gas station is a world of its own," observes Ramon Fitó, owner of the Fitó service station in Badalona, the oldest in Catalonia. Experience, therefore, is not the same for an operator with commercial and storage capacity as for a small local chain. Nevertheless, everyone who does not have their own refineries has seen their margins tighten. "We pass on the prices day by day. And, obviously, we have been forced to buy a more expensive product," observes Payá.has left this week the Brent around $110Anomalous competition

"We are tied to daily prices, and we can store for two or three days. When there were daily increases of 6, 7, 10 cents, the environment became very complicated," explains Ramon Puigfel, general director of Puigfel Carburants and president of the Provincial Association of Service Stations of Barcelona (APESBcn), to the newspaper ARA. In the case of his company, they ensure supply with an exclusive contract with Repsol, but even so, daily business has been marked by "certain public statements" by Donald Trump or the Iranian government. "If a sharp price drop caught you with full tanks, you were sunk," he recalls.

Gas stations, both those operated by larger companies and small service stations, have seen the competitive environment looking for a thousand ways to secure business. It should be remembered that companies without refining capacity have a limitation: they sell at almost fixed margins, between the sword of the market price and the wall of competitor prices. And, at times, Payá assures, stations "have not passed on all the increases to prices." "In the worst moments, gasoline should have been well above two euros, and it didn't reach that" in a generalized way, the businessman maintains.

This has led, in Puigfel's experience, that on many occasions gas stations have been forced to sell "at much lower margins than they would like" to maintain sales volume. To the point, especially for smaller players, that "there have been times when we have lost money – declares Fitó–. If you adapt to wholesale prices by raising gasoline two cents more than the one next door, people leave. You can't leave the market."

Changes in consumption

Then, with a flat cut of the final priceFrom Meroil they identify that most end-users have opted to "put less gasoline, but go to the service station more often"; to make it easier to avoid days of higher prices. Fitó has indeed lamented "drops in income" in favor of lower-cost alternatives: "In oil crises, people put less gasoline, save on outings, or opt for low cost" products," he comments.

The situation for buyers, however, has stabilized due to the reduction of VAT on fuels from 21% to 10%, as well as the reduction to the minimum allowed by Europe of the tax on hydrocarbons. "This has helped to contain the final price," celebrates Puigfel, and has revived consumption. Furthermore, the consulted sources celebrate that the reduction has been applied directly to the taxes that stations pay, and not in the form of a price discount, as was done during the war in Ukraine. At that time, with a flat reduction in the final price, "the systems were not prepared to adapt to it," and it was difficult to benefit from it.

Despite this, they have not yet planned the situation the market will be in after June 30, when, presumably, the reductions will fall. Unlike in 2022, when the market took little time to "discount" the effects of the Russian oil blockade on the final product, Payá warns that "high prices will continue." "Ormuz remains closed, and many refineries and oil assets have stopped. And the oil from the region has no alternatives: the product that does not go out through there, does not go out anywhere," he concludes. Castany predicts that "the market will continue to show volatility" in the short and medium term.

A "conservative" supply

Despite the alerts from the International Energy Agency, which even used the strategic reserves of member countries, oil companies have not noticed any supply risk in recent weeks. The Strait of Hormuz concentrates 20% of global oil traffic, but the crude oil that navigates through the region ends up in China, South Korea, and other Asian powers. "It has affected us little in that regard. The price tension has come because more countries have been competing for less oil supply," reasons Puigfel.

However, final sellers have detected "more conservative" periods from their suppliers, especially in the most critical moments of the war. According to the president of APESBcn, however, this cooling has responded more to "forecasts of logistical problems" than to a shortage in gasoline tanks. "At first, everyone wanted to fill their tanks, and there was a moment when there was no transport for all the product being requested," he recalls. The president of Nieves Energia, for his part, minimizes the macro effects in the Spanish context, as independent players "have had to turn to national refining, which does exist." Outside the State, "the situation is much more complicated," and the search for alternative suppliers has caused "even more tension in the market."