Fuels: diesel prices must fall from this weekend

Not sure that this will be enough to calm the discontent in the country, but the situation should ease slightly on the fuel front. From this weekend, motorists will see diesel prices drop by 12 to 18 cents across the country. In question, the placing on the market of 10 million barrels from French strategic stocks. This measure was unveiled by the Prime Minister on Wednesday October 7, but it is only effective from November 1. At the same time, TotalEnergies announced that it would reduce the price of a liter of diesel to 2.15 euros in just over 700 of its service stations. Until then, the giant displayed it at 2.25 euros. A price already below the market average.

This is a new test for the executive. After promising throughout the month of October that the situation would significantly improve for motorists on November 1, it is time to keep our word. It was in fact on October 2 that Emmanuel Macron and all the heads of state of the G7 agreed to put an additional 100 million barrels on the market. The latter come from strategic stocks that each member country of the International Energy Agency (IEA) is required to constitute. For France, 10 million barrels will be made available to distributors, at a price below the market.

The government has taken “an exceptional measure, which no government has ever taken before,” declared the Prime Minister in a video broadcast in mid-November on social networks. This will represent a drop in the price at the pump, “up to 18 cents per liter (...), which represents around ten euros of savings with each fill-up on average,” assured Sébastien Lecornu.

For economist Patrice Geoffron, director of the Center for Geopolitics of Energy and Raw Materials (CGEMP) at Paris-Dauphine University, the government's promise is possible. The 10 million barrels which will soon be released “correspond to approximately 1.6 billion liters”, calculates Patrice Geoffron. However, “with an annual consumption of road diesel of around 32 billion liters, or around 8 billion liters over a quarter, these volumes cover almost 20% of needs over three months”, in other words, around one liter in five.

In its approach, the government will receive support from TotalEnergies. The French company announced that it “will lower the price of diesel to 2.15 EUR/L, from this Saturday, October 31, in the 705 Access stations in its network”. A boost of 10 cents which comes “without waiting for the physical delivery of strategic diesel stocks and to provide its customers with access to these stocks at historical cost”, explains the company. This gesture was revealed in the wake of the exceptional results obtained by TotalEnergies in the third quarter. The group announced a record net profit of $8.3 billion in the third quarter, in addition to the $9.8 billion made in the first half.

For motorists, it was high time that these boosts arrived. According to government data, the average price of a liter of Unleaded 95 (E10) stands at 2.10 euros per liter on average in France as of October 31, while diesel reaches 2.40 euros per liter. Amounts close to historic highs. For comparison, a liter of Unleaded 95 (E10) gasoline was priced at 1.72 euros per liter before the war started by Donald Trump in Iran at the end of February. The jump is even more spectacular for diesel, the price of which was also 1.72 euros per liter at the time. That’s an increase of 70 cents in eight months.