The Minister of Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, held on Monday a press conference dedicated to fuel prices, acknowledging that the country is facing a difficult moment of exceptional complexity. The minister guaranteed that the Executive is not profiting from this crisis and reaffirmed the commitment to implement mitigation measures to protect families and businesses.
The minister pointed to the resurgence of international tensions between Russia and Ukraine and between the United States and Iran, as well as the closure of several refineries in Europe, as the main causes of the price escalation. These factors caused refining costs to reach historic maximum values and drove crude oil quotations to very high levels, resulting in a new global energy crisis that directly affects consumers.
Maria da Graça Carvalho highlighted that Portugal maintains final prices aligned with the European average, even registering slightly lower increases. Regarding Spain, she clarified that it is a regional exception, and that the difference between Portugal and Spain is equivalent to that separating Spain from France, where 95-octane gasoline exceeds 2.073 euros per liter.
The minister responded to criticism from the Socialist Party, explaining that since February 26, 2026, all additional VAT revenue has been fully channeled to offset against the ISP, representing a return of approximately 700 million euros to taxpayers. The Executive also announced the reinforcement of ERSE's sanctioning powers, which will now supervise the entire chain of the petroleum system, including refining, and demanded greater transparency in the disclosure of final consumer price components.
