According to Greenpeace in a report published on Thursday 7 April, oil companies have made around €3 billion in profits from the sale of diesel and petrol in Europe since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Conducted by Steffen Bukold, a German political scientist specialising in energy, at the request of the NGO, the report points out that in March alone, the oil industry earned an average of €107 million in additional revenue per day as a result of higher prices (€94 million for diesel sales and €13 million for petrol).
Klara Maria Schenk, Greenpeace’s climate and transport campaigner, said that “the oil industry is driving up prices to reel in record profits on the back of the war and the ongoing energy crisis”, as the rising price of crude oil “doesn’t justify price hikes along the supply chain and at the pump”.
Greenpeace therefore calls on EU Member States to tax the “windfall profits” of oil companies.
Recalling that Germany and Austria have launched investigations into possible cartel and price-fixing agreements, the NGO also calls on the European Commission to investigate the recent increase in diesel and refined petrol prices across the EU.
See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/16v (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)