In Bahia, why is cheaper gasoline found in municipalities far from the refinery? Expert explains

In recent days, most drivers have been taken by surprise by the large increase in fuel prices, especially gasoline. In Feia de Santana the price varies between R$ 6.22 and 6.29.

Internet users from Feira de Santana questioned why fuel was cheaper in municipalities far from the Landulpho Alves refinery in São Francisco do Conde. To answer this question, Conectado News spoke with the economist at UEFS (State University of Feira de Santana) Antônio Rosevaldo, who explained the reason.

“The price of gasoline suffers from variables that have a very large impact on the pump, first, the cost of producing 1 liter of gasoline, from there, the cost of taxation, federal and state taxes and then there is the cost of distribution, putting the gasoline in further away, at the point of sale. We will have places in Bahia, where some people will complain, that they filled up in a city, 500 km away and gasoline was cheaper than in Feira de Santana, why would that be? of gasoline as it should be, for this municipality that is 500 km away, the product would arrive for an approximate price of R$30 per liter, but here it would be cheap. To avoid this, the cross-subsidization method is used, in that a longer freight ends up obtaining a benefit because it is shared with the nearest cities”.

Having explained the shipping issue, let’s look at the external variables that impact gasoline, the external market, it is a commodity (is a term that corresponds to non-industrialized global basic products, that is, raw materials that do not differ regardless of who produced them or their origin, with their price being uniformly determined by international supply and demand), that is, the price is linked to the international market, if the dollar rises, fuel also rises, as happened recently, the dollar is returning to normal levels, there will be a decrease in value. The price of gasoline in Feira de Santana cost an average of R$6.39 last week, this week, R$6.25. Why did the dollar rise so much last week? There was the prospect of a new war breaking out between Iran and Israel, but economic law spoke stronger than human law and that is why the war did not happen. Another external factor that weighs on the value of gasoline is the price of ethanol, when the sugar market is on the rise, ethanol producers, which are the same as sugar producers, choose to shift all sugarcane production to sugar production. , placing the price at the same level as sugar, that is, sugar ends up affecting the price of gasoline. Another factor is the growth of the electric car market, this drops the demand for gasoline, this is very little to talk about, because the European market still does not have a good demand for electric cars, to charge the car, energy is needed and in Europe, energy is based on gas, coming from Russia, which is still at war with Ukraine, which affects the price of fuel in Brazil, returning more specifically to Bahia, at Acelen, many petrochemical products are produced, like paraffin, as Bahia oil greatly favors this type of production, so when it interests them, they produce more paraffin than gasoline and buy the fuel from Petrobras, which also makes gasoline more expensive” .

Reporting: Berinaldo Cazumbá and Hely Beltrão