World Energy Prices

High-quality data on end-use energy prices

The IEA’s World Energy Prices database provides users with high-quality annual data on end-use prices for most countries in the world, based on official sources and calculated using transparent and documented methodologies. The database includes annual energy prices data for more than 100 countries, for gasoline, diesel, electricity and other products. It complements the IEA's historical quarterly data for Energy Prices and Taxes of OECD member countries.

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Transport fuel prices

In 2018, the global average price of gasoline was 0.97 US dollar per litre (USD/l), a 14% increase compared to the previous year.

Prices varied greatly across countries: from 0.33 USD/l in Algeria to over five times that amount in Norway (1.91 USD/l). Both of these countries are crude oil exporters, and the price difference between them is mainly determined by national policy decisions. Government policy - in the form of taxes and/or subsidies – strongly influences how prices at the pump vary around the world. In general, European consumers pay the highest gasoline prices, generally reflecting high taxes on fuels. At the other end of the spectrum, the lowest prices are found among countries that subsidise liquid fuels.

Gasoline prices in USD per litre All prices are for mid-grade gasoline in 2018 unless otherwise specified. This map is without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.

Click any country to add or remove it from the bar graph below.

Sub-national transport fuel prices

Geographical variations in transport fuel prices can exist within a country due to several factors including: pricing frameworks, sub-national taxes, distribution costs (proximity of consumers to suppliers), marketing costs (retail competition and margins) and refining costs (different environmental regulations).

For example, sub-national gasoline prices in China are relatively more homogenous due to national price regulations compared to those in Brazil where prices are market-based and largely affected by local taxes.

Transport fuel price variation from the national average, Brazil and China, 2018
 
 
These maps are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.

Transport fuel price trends

In recent years, automotive diesel and gasoline prices have tracked movements in crude oil prices.

Global pump prices are, on average, significantly higher than the underlying crude spot prices as they also reflect transformation, transport and marketing costs, as well as taxes levied on fuel sales.

	Crude oil	Gasoline (world average)	Automotive diesel (world average)
2005	0.343446541	0.92	1
2006	0.409685535	0.99	1.07
2007	0.455006289	0.98	1.04
2008	0.610660377	1.04	1.18
2009	0.388062893	0.87	0.94
2010	0.500081761	0.95	1.04
2011	0.69945283	1.08	1.15
2012	0.702358491	1.08	1.17
2013	0.683522013	1.05	1.14
2014	0.622257862	1.02	1.11
2015	0.329377358	0.84	0.92
2016	0.274943396	0.78	0.85
2017	0.340610063	0.84	0.92
2018	0.448207547	0.94	1.05

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Note: Prices in 2015 US dollars. Crude oil refers to nominal (i.e., not deflated) North Sea dated crude spot prices, as calculated from daily quotations from Argus Crude.

Just as global prices for gasoline and automotive diesel track each other through time, within-country gasoline and automotive diesel prices in 2018 are strongly correlated. At a global level, the consumption-weighted price of gasoline is lower than that of automotive diesel despite being more expensive in most individual countries. This is because the global average price for gasoline is significantly influenced by prices in the United States.

For similar reasons, the higher consumption of gasoline in the United States pulls the world average price well below the median price, and vice versa for automotive diesel - in 2016, the United States consumed 35% of global gasoline, compared to 14% of automotive diesel.

Fuel price distribution across countries in US dollars per litre, 2018
 
 

Note: whisker tops are the countries with the highest prices and the whisker bottoms are the countries with the lowest prices. The lines inside the boxes represent the medians. The top and bottom edges of the boxes represent the 75th and 25th percentiles, respectively.

Regional transport fuel price trends

At a regional level, pump prices track movements in crude markets more closely in the United States than in the European Union – largely reflecting taxation structure. For example, in Europe most taxes are levied on a per volume basis while in the United States, taxes are usually ad valorem (proportional to the value).


Note: Price changes for gasoline and diesel are based on prices in 2015 US dollars. Crude oil refers to nominal (i.e., not deflated) North Sea dated crude spot prices, as calculated from daily quotations from Argus Crude.

For gasoline, the four largest price increases were seen in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates.

All four cases were linked to policy developments, as these countries reduced their fuel subsidies and/or introduced value-added taxes (VAT), resulting in successive increases in prices at the pump. Despite the high increases in relative terms, prices for gasoline in these countries were still among the lowest in the world as of 2018.

	Gasoline price increase	Crude oil price increase
Crude oil price		36
World average	12	
United Arab Emirates	19	
Algeria	57	
Bahrain	87	
Saudi Arabia	227	

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Note: Percent changes are between years 2015 and 2018. Percent changes for individual countries are based on prices in national currency per litre deflated to 2015 levels. Crude oil percent change refers to nominal (i.e., not deflated) North Sea dated crude spot prices, as calculated from daily quotations from Argus Crude. World average percent change is based on 2015 US dollars.

Due to the role of policy settings, gasoline prices in Algeria, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia showed little correlation to commodity price movements until recently, with the United Arab Emirates tracking the movements most closely among the four countries in the last four years.

	Saudi Arabia	Bahrain	United Arab Emirates	Algeria	Crude oil	World average
2005	0.24	0.27		0.29	0.34	0.79
2006	0.19	0.27		0.29	0.41	0.88
2007	0.16	0.27		0.31	0.46	0.93
2008	0.16	0.27		0.33	0.61	1.05
2009	0.16	0.27		0.29	0.39	0.84
2010	0.16	0.27		0.28	0.5	0.96
2011	0.16	0.27		0.29	0.7	1.16
2012	0.16	0.27		0.27	0.7	1.16
2013	0.16	0.27		0.27	0.68	1.13
2014	0.16	0.27		0.26	0.62	1.09
2015	0.16	0.27	0.5	0.21	0.33	0.84
2016	0.24	0.42	0.44	0.26	0.27	0.78
2017	0.24	0.43	0.51	0.29	0.34	0.85
2018	0.54	0.53	0.64	0.33	0.45	0.97

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Note: Prices for individual countries are in nominal US dollars to emphasize that gasoline prices in these countries remained relatively stable for many years until recently. World average gasoline prices are also in nominal US dollars. Crude oil percent change refers to nominal (i.e., not deflated) North Sea dated crude spot prices, as calculated from daily quotations from Argus Crude.

Electricity prices

Residential electricity prices also vary significantly across countries. For example, households in Turkmenistan benefit from free electricity while consumers in several other countries face high utility bills

Comparing prices in US dollars do not consider differences in the cost of living across countries, making it hard to assess how expensive or affordable electricity is for consumers in each country). By converting the data using purchase power parity (PPP) adjusted exchange rates, electricity appears significantly more expensive in Morocco than Australia, for example, while the opposite is true when comparing prices using nominal exchange rates.

	USD/MWh	USD (PPP)/MWh
Turkmenistan	0	0
Saudi Arabia	23.1	59.59
Russia	62.54	151.34
Mexico	63.76	133.08
India	75.2	276
China	78.26	149.01
Indonesia	78.92	252
Argentina	86.89	125.45
South Africa	101.36	222.43
Canada	108.98	112.99
Korea	109.11	142.46
Morocco	110.73	300.65
Turkey	112.87	299.73
USA	129	129
Singapore	160.02	260.38
France	187.31	214.25
Brazil	200.4	315.94
UK	205.73	231.17
Japan	226.55	248.02
Australia	237.08	214.17
Italy	263.24	335.39
Germany	343.59	404.15

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Electricity prices for residential use are generally higher and also vary more widely across countries than those for industry. Globally, the electricity price for industry falls between the median and 25th percentile, showing that countries where prices are relatively lower tend to have a relatively greater specialisation in industrial sectors.

Distribution of residential and industry electricity prices, 2017
 
 

Note: whisker tops are the countries with the highest prices and the whisker bottoms are the countries with the lowest prices. The lines inside the boxes represent the medians. The top and bottom edges of the boxes represent the 75th and 25th percentiles, respectively.

Electricity prices for residential use have a wider spread and seem to follow a bimodal distribution across countries while the distribution of electricity prices for industry is approximately normal.

	Industry	Residential
<30	1	2
30 to 60	8	3
60 to 90	12	13
90 to 120	22	13
120 to 150	13	6
150 to 180	9	8
180 to 210	2	13
210 to 240	1	3
240 to 270	0	3
270 to 300	0	1
300 to 330	0	2
330 to 360	0	1

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