By Andrea Hargraves 
If you need to fill up your tank, know that you will have to wait next week, as fuel prices will drop to two cents per liter at the major NOCs.
The price of diesel has not fallen since April and the price of gasoline fell for the last time in May. Data from the Directorate General of Energy and Geology (DGEG) show that the average price of a liter of gasoline in Portugal is currently €1.738, while that of diesel is €1.523.
At gas stations near supermarkets, a decrease of about 0.017 cents will be recorded for simple and additive diesel and 0.018 cents for 95 gasoline.
Fuel prices in Portugal have been on an upward trajectory since the beginning of the year and this is one of the rare setbacks recorded since the beginning of the year. In the case of diesel, the price has risen 22 times and fallen only four times since the beginning of the year, according to data from the Directorate General of Energy and Geology (DGEG). As for gasoline, it has increased 25 times and decreased only three times since January.
According to the latest report from Brussels, after taxes, the average price of fuel in Portugal is the fifth most expensive in the entire European Union. The European Commission report also shows that a large share of the price charged for each liter of fuel goes to state coffers.
The government wants to reduce margins for fuel and gas cylinders
The government has approved a draft law that will be referred to the Parliament and aims to provide the government with a tool when it is proven that margins for fuel and gas cylinders are “unusually high and unjustifiably” to reduce these margins. According to João Matos Fernández, Minister for the Environment and Energy Transition, if approved, the government may – always listening to ENSE and the competition authority – set the maximum margin.
The minister explained that this restriction should be done in limited periods of time, a month or two for example. “This margin is the sum of the margins related to transportation and storage,” enumerates João Matos Fernandez, also referring to retail distribution, for example.
According to the minister, the reference values for each of these aspects continue to be calculated on a daily basis, and once the proposed law is approved, the government will have a tool to intervene in setting the price of fuel and cylinders. Gas. Something that is not possible today by law.