More than 15 cents reduction but only on diesel: prices are already falling in 6,000 service stations out of 10,000, the government promises that all the others will follow

Diesel prices continue to fall. Since the release of a first burst of diesel from strategic stocks, prices have fallen sharply. They started to drop in 6.

000 of the 10,000 French service stations, 12 centimes on average, and even "more than 15 centimes" in 4,000 of them, after the placing on the market of strategic stocks, indicated Tuesday the Minister of Commerce Serge Papin.

“It will continue in the days to come, since little by little, it is the 10,000 stations which will lower their prices,” he added, during a press point in Bercy with the Minister of the Economy Roland Lescure, stressing that this is “the first time that strategic stocks have been used to lower prices. Usually, it was to resolve shortage problems”.

At the beginning of October, the executive announced the release of 10 million barrels of diesel in order to relieve a market under tension since the outbreak of war between the United States, Israel and Iran. The objective was to quickly increase the volumes available on the French market to reduce prices, without waiting for a lasting easing of international oil prices. The price war at the pump The decline has accelerated since Sunday November 1, with discounts sometimes higher than the 18 cents announced by the government.

E. Leclerc has therefore decided to reduce the price of a liter of diesel by 21 cents in its 742 service stations, while TotalEnergies has reduced the price of diesel to 2.15 euros in the 705 stations in its Access network. Competition between distributors also contributes to accelerating the movement.

TotalEnergies has committed to capping its prices and its boss, Patrick Pouyanné, has even promised to systematically offer diesel a cent cheaper than that sold at E. Leclerc. The fact remains that the drop remains very uneven depending on the stations, in particular due to differences in stocks and supply times.

And its continuation will largely depend on the evolution of oil prices, always very sensitive to developments in the conflict in the Middle East.

Machine-translated from French