Rising petroleum prices will have consequences for all citizens and companies. According to sources consulted by elEconomista, butane gas tanks will rise 2.9% started with the next price revision on April 1 and cost up to 15.53 euros for each 12.5 kilogram tank.
Still, this measure will not be sufficient for the industry considering that it has not resolved the bloodletting of losses that it is enduring.
According to company accounts, losses are already at 30 million euros on the year because pricing structures are built on a formula from April 2009, when crude was at an historic low. This cost is called Term C and accounts carries 13% weight in a formula used to calculate the price of a butane gas cylinder every three months.
So if this term is abolished, as the gas industry is requesting through the Spanish Association of Liquid Gas and Petroleum, then the increase would be 11.9% and put the final price of a tank at 16.88 euros.
The gas operators think that this is the minimum increase that should be applied at this time considering that total price liberalization is still pending.
The sector has already amassed losses of 300 million in less than three years and an historic tariff deficit of around 550 million euros, which has been neither recognized nor given to the companies.
Therefore, AOGLP assures that although the price of gas tanks should end up around 16.88 euros, the gas operators would lose nearly 2% per tank sold despite the fact that tank prices have already risen 17.98% in the past year.
For AOGLP, the situation is "a consequence of a regulatory price" that has created a loss (a figure derived from the gap between the real cost and sale price of the final product) as an evil that is endemic on operator balance sheets and seriously threatening the survival of the Spanish liquid gas sector.
