The plant in Schwechat is currently only running at a capacity of 20 percent. Recently, there have been repeated reports of individual filling stations being closed or that individual filling stations were temporarily no longer able to offer individual fuels such as diesel. “All mineral companies are working to offset potential fuel supply shortages,” says Doloszeski. “Nevertheless, we cannot rule out bottlenecks from time to time.”
“The availability of diesel fuel is currently limited,” regrets the FVMI managing director. “In some cases, delivery bottlenecks can therefore occur in the Austrian filling station network. The reason for this is the high demand combined with a shortage of supply on the market.”
The entire European fuel market is tense. In addition to problems in Schwechat, there are also production losses in other European refineries. Difficulties were caused, for example, by the low water on the Rhine. In addition, several refineries have been unavailable in recent months due to planned maintenance work that had been postponed due to Corona.
In any case, the range of products has declined because imports from Russia have been reduced. As a result, many companies are switching from gas to alternative forms of energy such as heating oil. This step is also supported with public money to keep production going should gas become really scarce.
“In addition, since the end of the summer there has been increasing demand in Austria due to partly restricted sales volumes and expiring price regulations in neighboring countries,” says Doloszeski. “The tank discount introduced in June has no longer applied in Germany since September 2022.”
Overall, Europe is a diesel import market. And in the “diesel country” of Austria, more diesel is consumed than is produced. In Germany, 59 percent of the demand is imported, mainly from Germany. According to Doloszeski, there are also logistical problems there, including low water and refinery failures. And: “Due to the geopolitical situation and the lack of Russian quantities, less diesel is available on the European market.” In 2021, 30.9 million tons of diesel from Russia came to Europe, according to preliminary Eurostat data. This gave Russia a market share of around ten percent, which will be lost.