Meanwhile, SP95-E10, the most widely used fuel in France and not covered by the release of stocks, has also fallen, but more slightly. Since the beginning of the month, half of the stations have cut their prices by at least 8 cents per liter, and the average price fell below 2.04 euros on November 9.
This decline, however, offsets only part of the earlier increase. At most of the stations concerned, it erases less than half of the previous rise.
At 90% of stations, the gap with the level before the U.S. strikes on Iran reaches 35 to 60 cents. As of November 9, prices also remained, at most of these stations, 35 to 60 cents above prewar levels, despite the cap.
In early November, about a thousand stations lowered the price per liter by more than 30 cents in roughly ten days. Three-quarters of them are TotalEnergies stations, which had capped diesel at 2.25 euros per liter for several months. This drop comes as the government launched, on November 1, an exceptional operation: selling at cost ten million barrels of diesel from strategic stocks over three months.
Across all 8,500 stations examined, a liter of diesel remains at least 27 cents more expensive than at the start of the war.
The price of diesel has fallen by at least 20 cents at half of French stations since the release of part of the strategic stocks in early November, according to an AFP analysis. It remains, however, markedly higher than on the eve of the war in the Middle East in late February. According to data from the government fuel-price website, diesel has decreased at more than eight stations out of ten since November 1.
The average pump price stood at around 2.20 euros per liter on November 9, according to BFMTV citing AFP.