Diesel for symbolic €1 a litre at select pumps

This weekend, several petrol stations in Belgium plan to offer diesel for a symbolic €1 a litre amid slumping global oil prices.

“Lower gas prices is a result of oversupply,” Jean-Louis Nizet, secretary-general of the Belgian Petroleum Foundation, told broadcaster RTBF. “There’s a surplus of petrol at a global level.”

The current surplus stems from the recent ending of sanctions against Iran, which is now supplying the equivalent of a million and a half barrels of oil daily, about the same as Libya’s daily production, although still well below Iran’s output peak of six million barrels a day in the 1970s.

Sanctions against Iran were lifted as a result of a groundbreaking accord brokered by the United States, China, Russia, the UK, France and Germany last month to curb Iran’s nuclear programme.

The price of US oil fell to nearly $40 a barrel this week, its lowest level in six years and nearly a 60% decline from last summer’s highs, according to Fortune magazine.