Gasoline in Czechia to Get Cheaper by at Least CZK 1.50 per Litre

Prices for petrol and diesel at Czech filling stations are set to drop by at least CZK 1.50 per litre over the next two weeks. That's according to Finlord analyst Boris Tomčak, who noted that wholesale prices for both types of fuel have fallen by roughly two crowns per litre over the past week alone.

Petr Lajsko, an analyst at Purple Trading, says the drop is also tied to oil price trends. North Sea Brent crude has slid from over $100 in mid-July to around $85 a barrel today.

Forecast for the Rest of the Month

"If Brent holds around $80 a barrel, petrol has a real shot at averaging below 40 crowns a litre by the end of the month," says Lajsko. Diesel should also get cheaper, though the correction may be more modest given tighter conditions in that market.

According to CCS, a company that has long tracked fuel prices, Natural 95 petrol averaged 41.61 crowns on Sunday, while diesel sold for 44.10 crowns per litre. Since the start of August, petrol has dropped by 78 hellers and diesel by 39 hellers per litre.

The tougher situation with diesel stems from tighter market supply, attacks on oil refineries in Russia and the Middle East, and export restrictions from Russia and China. "That's why the drop in exchange prices for diesel hasn't yet filtered through to pump prices as quickly as it has for petrol. On top of that, diesel prices were noticeably affected by July's excise tax hike following the removal of price regulation, which alone pushed the price up by more than two crowns a litre," Lajsko explained.

Are Filling Stations Raising Their Margins?

The analyst pointed to an interesting trend: wholesale petrol prices have been falling for about three weeks straight, while the average price at Czech pumps has barely budged over the same period. "Market dynamics suggest that some filling station operators may have used the drop in wholesale prices in recent weeks to quietly widen their margins," he said.

Source: novinky.cz