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Gas station in Düsseldorf (picture from March 24): prices like never before
Photo: IMAGO/Michael Gstettenbauer
According to a Greenpeace study, Europe's mineral oil companies and petrol station operators are generating additional profits in the billions from the drastic increase in petrol and diesel prices.
Accordingly, the industry has significantly increased its margins in the slipstream of the Russian war.
This income is particularly high in Germany.
According to the study, since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the petroleum industry has generated additional gross profits – i.e. higher revenues for fuel minus the increased costs for crude oil – totaling around 3.3 billion euros.
This corresponds to a so-called "crisis profit" of an average of 107 million euros per day, according to the previously unpublished study.
It was created by the Hamburg energy expert Steffen Bukold for Greenpeace and was available to SPIEGEL in advance.
According to the study, these "crisis profits" are highest in Germany: with an average of 38.2 million euros per day.
It is followed by France (13.3 million euros), Italy (12.5 million euros), Spain (7.6 million euros) and Austria (4.3 million euros).
Above all, the sharp increase in income from the sale of diesel fills the coffers of the European mineral oil industry.
In Germany, this fuel has recently become more expensive than Super E10.
According to Greenpeace, diesel accounts for an average “crisis profit” of 94 million euros per day, with petrol it is 13 million.
All these figures are based on a comparison of crude oil, refinery and gas station prices:
According to the study, the price of crude oil of the North Sea reference variety Brent rose by an average of 19.4 cents per liter by March 22nd.
The refinery price for diesel, on the other hand, rose by more than 30 cents - and at the gas station the average price per liter was even 36.5 cents more, mind you, before taxes.
Gasoline went up in price by 20.5 cents from the refinery and by an average of 26.7 cents per liter at the pump.
The additional margins were multiplied by the quantities of the respective fuel sold.
According to the study, the additional gross profits of 3.3 billion euros will also be reflected in similarly high profit increases for companies.
According to the study, the refineries would have to bear higher costs for the natural gas they consume.
In return, however, the expenditure for Russian crude oil is significantly lower than that for the North Sea oil Brent, which is the basis for the calculations.
Russian oil is currently trading at a significant discount to Brent.
Even the temporary tax reduction planned by the federal government of 14 cents per liter of diesel and 30 cents per liter of petrol would not reduce the profits of the mineral oil industry.
On the contrary: It could even happen that the prices at the pump do not fall correspondingly - and the margins increase in return.
»The oil industry has been enriching itself for decades at the expense of the climate and our future.
Now it turns out that the oil companies are shamelessly ripping us off in the middle of a terrible war," Martin Kaiser, the executive director of Greenpeace Germany, told SPIEGEL.
Greenpeace is demanding that Europe's governments siphon off the crisis profits of corporations with a new tax in the short term and use the money to compensate socially disadvantaged households for their rising energy costs.
At the same time, the EU Commission must accelerate the decarbonization of the EU transport sector.
The aim must be that by 2028 no new cars with combustion engines should be sold.
So far, this approval ban is planned for 2035.
