How we measure European fuel prices, stocks, and reserves

All EU-27 retail fuel prices on EuroOilWatch come from the European Commission DG Energy Weekly Oil Bulletin. The Commission collects national average consumer prices, including all taxes, from official authorities in each member state every Wednesday and publishes on Thursdays. We refresh our country table the same day.

The Bulletin is harmonised across countries, which makes it the only sound foundation for cross-border comparison. We use it for every country ranking, EU-wide average, and weekly historical series.

Monthly closing oil-stock levels for each EU member state come from Eurostat's nrg_stk_oilm dataset, in thousand tonnes on national territory. Gross inland consumption comes from nrg_cb_oilm.

We track three fuel categories: motor gasoline (petrol), gas/diesel oil, and kerosene-type jet fuel. Both Eurostat series publish monthly with an approximate two-month lag — the figure on the site today reflects the most recent fully-reported period, not real-time inventories.

We use two different Brent series for two different jobs, and disclose both because they can diverge sharply during volatile markets.

The live dashboard card tracks Stooq's cb.f front-month Brent futures — intraday, freely available, refreshes client-side. Front-month futures price expected near-term delivery and roll between contracts as months expire.

The “Brent in historical context” chart on /prices draws from the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Europe Brent Spot Price FOB daily series (RBRTE), which goes back to 20 May 1987. EIA spot is the more authoritative reference for analytical work — it is what most press and policy citations mean by “Brent.”

In normal markets the spread between the two is about $1–3/bbl. During the Iran-war period of early 2026 it widened past $25/bbl as the futures curve discounted a near-term ceasefire. Both numbers are real and sourced — they answer different questions. EUR conversion uses the current EUR/USD exchange rate.

“Days of supply” is calculated as:

This is an estimate. The EU's Oil Stocks Directive (2009/119/EC) requires member states to maintain emergency stocks equal to at least 90 days of net imports or 61 days of consumption, whichever is higher. We use 90 days as the reference threshold because most EU member states are significant net importers, so it is the binding constraint for the majority of countries.

This is the caveat that most fuel-price comparisons skip — and the one most likely to mislead. A “price” from one source is not interchangeable with a “price” from another, even when both are sourced from the same Bulletin.

The clearest trap is Belgium. Belgian retail fuel pricing is regulated via a maximum-price ceiling published daily by FPS Economy. The figure that enters the EC Weekly Oil Bulletin reflects that maximum permitted price, not necessarily what motorists actually pay at the pump. Retailers may sell below it, so the published number is a ceiling, not an observed average. We display Belgium prices with that context, and any future granular-data integration for Belgium will distinguish observed prices from regulatory ceilings.

The broader principle: each price is stored with its own source label and methodology flag, and comparisons across countries are drawn only after normalising fuel grade, unit, tax treatment, week, and geography.

When two reproductions of one of our figures disagree, the cause is almost always one of the four below — not the arithmetic:

• →The fuel grade differs (E10 vs E5 vs B7 diesel; jet A vs jet A1).
• →The cadence window differs — we report the latest weekly bulletin and the rolling 4-week trend; using a single day or a single month produces a different number.
• →The geographic perimeter differs (single country vs EU-27 average vs euro-area subset).
• →The tax treatment differs (consumer price including all taxes vs net-of-tax product price; we always quote the consumer figure unless explicitly noted).

State all four and any two analysts will converge. Omit one and they will not, however identical the formula looks.

The AI analysis is generated by Claude (Anthropic) using the latest stock, price, and crude data. It provides a plain-English interpretation of the numbers and highlights notable trends or risks. The analysis is regenerated whenever the underlying data updates.

Analysis is AI-assisted and provided for informational purposes only. For important decisions, users should verify the underlying figures against official primary sources.