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Diesel drops below €1 in parts of Germany

Motorists in parts of Germany were treated to a rare sight this week as filling station signs showed the price of diesel slipping below €1.

Published: 15 January 2015 11:13 CET

Diesel drops below €1 in parts of Germany

Photo: DPA

Drivers unaccustomed to low prices were delighted to see diesel fall to 99 cents at some gas stations in Schleswig Holstein on Wednesday afternoon.

With global oil prices plummeting in recent weeks, German car club ADAC calculated an average diesel price of €1.128 per litre across Germany on Wednesday, down 3.3 cents on last week’s prices.

For prices to slip below the landmark €1 level nationwide “the price of oil would need to drop quite a bit more”, according to ADAC spokesman Andreas Hölzel.

Petrol prices are also falling, albeit at a slower rate. Last week, motorists in Germany paid an average of €1.275 for a litre of Super E10. By Wedneday that figure had dropped to €1.262.

Thanks to a major drop in crude oil prices in the second half of last year, record high 2012 petrol prices of €1.70 are little more than a hazy memory.

The last time diesel cost less than €1 nationwide was in March 2009.

Germany set to finish controversial Russian pipeline despite US protest

Unused pipeline at Mukran Port in north Germany. Photo: AFP

German shipping authorities have issued an advisory for the Baltic Sea area where the final few kilometres of the pipeline are set to be laid, warning vessels to avoid the zone from December 5-31.

Ship-tracking website Marinetraffic.com also shows Russian pipe-laying ships Fortuna and Akademik Cherskiy moving towards the area.

These indications coincided with a statement from the acting US ambassador to Germany calling on Berlin and the EU to halt construction of the 1,200-kilometre (750-mile) pipeline, which is also opposed by many eastern European states.

“Now is the time for Germany and the EU to impose a moratorium on the construction of the pipeline,” acting ambassador Robin Quinville told business daily Handelsblatt.

This would send a signal to Russia that Europe was not willing to accept “its ongoing malicious behaviour”, the diplomat said.

“The pipeline is not only an economic project, but also a political tool that the Kremlin is using to bypass Ukraine and divide Europe.”

Many critics

Nord Stream 2 is a 10-billion-euro ($11-billion) pipeline that will run beneath the Baltic Sea and is set to double Russian natural-gas shipments to Germany, Europe's largest economy.

It has long been in the crosshairs of the United States, particularly by the Trump administration which has openly criticised European countries for their reliance on energy from Russia.

Work has been suspended for nearly a year because of US sanctions signed off by Trump in late 2019 that threaten asset freezes and visa restrictions for companies involved in the construction work.

As well as Russian giant Gazprom, which has a majority stake, the international consortium involved in the project includes European players such as Germany's Wintershall and Uniper groups, the Dutch-British giant Shell, France's Engie and Austria's OMV.

Trump has said Germany is “a captive to Russia” because of its energy policy.

Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic states are also fiercely opposed to the pipeline, fearing it will increase Europe's reliance on Russian energy supplies, which Moscow could then use to exert political pressure.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has face criticism in Germany for backing the project and there was speculation that she might withdraw support following the poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny earlier this year.

Navalny was treated in a Berlin hospital and German authorities concluded that he had been poisoned with a rare Novichok nerve agent developed by Russian authorities, plunging relations with the Kremlin to a new low.

In September when asked if the poisoning could affect Nordstream 2, Merkel's spokesman replied: “The chancellor believes it would be wrong to rule anything out from the start.”

A Nordtream 1 pipeline, which runs along a similar route to Nordstream 2, was inaugurated in 2011.

SEE ALSO: Denmark hails new German doubts on Russian gas pipeline

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