Spanish gas stations in Ourense warn they sell at a loss

Galician gas stations warn: selling fuel now costs money

A business that for decades celebrated every rise in crude oil is now the first to raise its hand and say it cannot endure. Service stations in Ourense, Spain, claim they are selling below cost: margins have dropped to zero and, in many cases, to half. The president of their provincial association, Fara Pérez Bellido, explains without embellishment: the money made from fuel bought on a Monday does not cover restocking it at the next day's price. This is the last piece of a chain that has been creaking in Galicia due to fishing, energy-intensive industries, and the oil needed by canneries.

Selling at a loss: when the margin doesn't cover restocking

The mechanism is simple and devastating. A station buys today the fuel it will sell tomorrow; if the barrel price moves faster than the tank empties, the sale closes below what it will cost to replace it. With normal margins, this gap is absorbed; with zero margins, the business becomes a daily roulette. The sector attributes the problem to many operators having cut their margins to the minimum yet still failing to balance, because fixed costs do not drop when revenue shrinks. The warning is not a lament: it is a notice that the next step, if nothing changes, is supply restriction.

Why fuel gets more expensive even though oil is priced in dollars?

Because the price drivers see is in euros while oil is quoted in dollars, and there the arithmetic works against them. The euro traded above 1.5 dollars in July 2008 and is now almost at parity with the US currency: the same barrel costs more euros without the barrel moving. Volatility adds to this. When the market doesn't know where crude will be in two weeks, pumps hedge with risk premiums instead of waiting. Some argue that with the barrel denominated in euros, exchange rates wouldn't explain anything; the opposite scenario assumes prices would take time to fall even if crude collapsed.

Sanctions or war: where the crisis originates

The official narrative points to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Much of the circulating analysis responds that the cause is not the conflict, but the economic sanctions the European Union has imposed on itself by cutting off Russian gas and oil, noting that while over sixty wars are open globally, these consequences are felt only here. The thesis completes with an uncomfortable calculation: if Brussels lifted restrictions, the energy bill would deflate, but alternative, more expensive supply already has signed contracts. Alongside this argument circulate readings about alleged dollar manipulation and depopulation plans that lack any proof.

Stocks bought months ago and speculation suspicion

Part of the analysis points to a detail that doesn't add up: the fuel served today was bought months ago at much lower prices, yet sold based on today's reference. Hence the accusation of pure and hard speculation: maintaining old stocks and billing them at current prices. The argument relies on a market antiestéticature, volatility, which allows fast rises and slow falls. The service station sector responds with the opposite: the money left by sales of previously bought fuel doesn't reach to restock at the next day's price.

The 50% of the price that is taxes: what changes and what doesn't

The Government waives half of what fuel owes to taxes, a measure that eases the final bill but doesn't touch the problem's structure. The question remains where the lost revenue will come from, and the suspicion, expressed bluntly, is that cuts will happen elsewhere. The underlying dispute isn't the liter price, but who pays the difference and what funding is sacrificed to pay it.

The Galician cascade: fishing, canning, and feed without oil

Galicia didn't reach this point just through fuel. The community accumulates broken links since the conflict began: the fishing fleet has stopped, energy-intensive industries halted production, essential oil for canneries is scarce, haulers warn of shortages, and farmers face a spring without feed. Each piece drags the next, and the service station is last in line: when trucks don't deliver, pumps run out of arguments.

With zero margins, intact sanctions, and the euro pegged to the dollar, the question is no longer how much gasoline will rise. It is how long a system can sustain itself where each link, from trawler to pump, claims to be losing money.