Four EU states absorb €41 billion in extra fuel costs from the Hormuz shock
CREA puts Italy at €12.7 billion, the Netherlands at €11.5 billion, France at €10.8 billion and Spain at €8.8 billion between March and August, with no extra import volumes. Worldwide the bill is more than €282 billion. Diesel and petrol are 59% above pre-war prices.
Brussels1 min read
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Italy, the Netherlands, France and Spain paid almost €41 billion more for fossil-fuel imports between March and August than markets had priced before the United States and Israel went to war with Iran on 28 February, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. They did not buy extra barrels. They paid more for the same ones.
CREA’s country figures are Italy €12.7 billion, the Netherlands €11.5 billion, France €10.8 billion and Spain €8.8 billion. Across 170 countries, 134 paid more for diesel than the pre-war curve. The global extra bill is more than €282 billion, of which oil accounts for €140 billion. Atlantic LNG is up 60 per cent, Pacific LNG 75 per cent. Diesel and petrol are 59 per cent higher.
Who filled the gap, and what clean power saved
In the first quarter the United States and Norway were the European Union’s largest suppliers of both petroleum oils and LNG. CREA says clean-power capacity added since 2020 saved importing countries €36 billion in fossil purchases in the first five months of the crisis. That saving did not cancel the bill. Spain still faced about €181 in extra import costs per person because transport, aviation and industry still run on oil.
The same week the IRGC claimed a revenue-sharing deal with Oman over Hormuz waters that a senior Iranian source later told Reuters was not final. European governments are already paying the price of a strait they do not control. Campaign groups want Ursula von der Leyen to put a fossil phase-out timetable into next month’s State of the Union. The CREA sheet is the number they will hold up.
