The week commenced with a mixed behavior of fuel prices, aligning with forecasts, as evidenced by the updated average prices from the Directorate-General for Energy and Geology (DGEG).
The price of regular 95 gasoline shifted from 1.705 euros per liter to 1.706 euros per liter between Friday and Monday, maintaining stability.
Conversely, regular diesel increased from 1.588 euros per liter to 1.604 euros per liter in the same period, rising by 1.6 cents.
It should be noted that average daily prices are determined based on prices communicated by fuel stations, weighted with sales volumes from the last known period, including discounts offered at fuel stations through fleet cards and others.
Forecasts indicated an increase of 1.5 cents for diesel and a decrease of half a cent for gasoline.
The consumption of liquid fuels remained steady until September compared to the same period in 2024, rising 0.2% to 4.364 million tons, with gasoline sales offsetting the decline in road diesel, according to sector data.
In the first nine months of this year, cumulative sales of liquid fuels amounted to 4.364 million tons, compared to 4.357 million tons in the same period last year, according to data released on Monday by the Portuguese Companies of Fuels and Lubricants (Epcol).
By product, gasoline sales increased by 7.3% to 1.016 million tons, countering the decrease of 62 thousand tons (1.8%) in road diesel, which totaled 3.348 million tons.
In terms of liquefied gases, there was an accumulated drop in the first three quarters of 4.7%, to 326 thousand tons.
Autogas was the only product that increased, by 13.3% to 46 thousand tons, while butane (down 11.9% to 85 thousand tons) and propane (down 5.0% to 195 thousand tons) recorded declines.
In just the third quarter of this year, there was a year-on-year decrease of 0.7%, to 1.530 million tons, despite a sequential increase of 3.4%.
Between July and September of this year, 1.151 million tons of road diesel and 380 thousand tons of gasoline were sold, representing year-on-year variations of -3.0% and 7.1%, respectively, and sequential changes of 1.1% and 10.8%, respectively.
For liquefied gases, there were both sequential declines (-11.8%) and year-on-year decreases (-3.5%), down to 96 thousand tons.
Autogas grew by 14.1% in year-on-year terms and 9.0% compared to the second quarter, reaching 17 thousand tons. Meanwhile, butane and propane decreased by 10.0% and 5.0% compared to the same period last year, totaling 24 thousand tons and 55 thousand tons, respectively. Sequentially, the sales of these products decreased by 14.8% for butane and 15.8% for propane.
In October, Epcol released statistics regarding average retail prices in Portugal for the third quarter.
Year-on-year, between July and September, the average retail prices for 95 gasoline and road diesel rose by 0.1% and 1.4% to 1.696 euros per liter and 1.571 euros per liter, respectively, while autogas dropped by 3.7% to 0.822 euros per liter.
Epcol’s data also indicates that, in the same period, there were year-on-year decreases in the average pre-tax price of 4.6% for 95 gasoline (0.744 euros per liter), 3.0% for road diesel (0.773 euros per liter), and 6.4% for autogas (0.438 euros per liter).
