With the beginning of the cold season, the prices of fossil fuels also change and their production becomes more vital. One of the strategic products is diesel, which is facing shortage of supply these days.

There is no fuel more vital than diesel for the world economy. Diesel fuels trucks, buses, ships, and trains, and powers machinery for construction, manufacturing, and agriculture. Diesel is used for home heating, and after the increase in gas prices, it is also used to generate electricity.

According to Roydad Naft, in the next few months, almost all regions of the world will face the risk of diesel shortage. The supply of this fuel has decreased in all the world’s energy markets, causing inflation to rise and economic growth to slow down.

Shortages of diesel affect everything from the price of chicken and turkey to energy bills for heating homes in the winter. The increase in the price of diesel alone in the United States will damage the economy by 100 billion dollars. According to analysts, everything that moves in the American economy needs diesel, and in addition to transportation, without diesel, people will freeze.

Diesel and heating oil reserves in the United States have reached the lowest level in the last 4 decades. Northeast Europe is also facing a shortage of diesel reserves and it is expected that the implementation of Russian oil sanctions will lower the level of these reserves even further. The world export market is so limited that poorer countries like Pakistan are almost out of it.

The price of diesel in the New York market, which is one of its main indicators, has increased by 50% this year. Diesel prices hit $4.90 a gallon in early November, nearly double last year.

There are several reasons for the lack of diesel in the world, one of which is the limited supply of crude oil. But the problem becomes more severe when it comes to converting crude oil into diesel and gasoline. The decrease in demand for fuel during the Corona crisis caused the closure of some parts of the refineries. On the other hand, the plan to move away from fossil fuels limited investment in this sector. US refinery capacity has decreased by more than 1 million barrels per day since 2020. Meanwhile, in Europe, shipping disruptions and workers’ strikes have affected refinery production.

Russia’s oil embargoes have worsened the situation. Europe is more dependent on diesel than any other region in the world and imports 500 million barrels of diesel per year by ship. Half of this figure is loaded in Russian ports. America has also stopped importing from Russia. Last winter, Russia was one of the biggest suppliers of oil products to America.

Many analysts believe that the lack of diesel will severely damage the world economy, and solving it requires new refinery capacity.