National statistics

Hydrocarbon Oils Bulletin commentary (January to March)

Updated 30 April 2024

This Hydrocarbon Oils Bulletin has been updated with provisional data from January to March 2024. From 23 March 2022, a 12 month reduction in fuel duties was introduced, which impacts on receipts and clearances from April 2022 onwards. This reduction was extended for a further 12 months in March 2023. It is not possible to disaggregate impacts from this policy from other factors potentially impacting hydrocarbon oils.

Headlines

The latest headlines for the hydrocarbon oils statistics are:

• the provisional total for hydrocarbon oils receipts in the last complete financial year (2023 to 2024), is £24,828 million, which is £272 million (1%) lower than the previous financial year

• the provisional total for petrol receipts during in the last complete financial year (2023 to 2024), is £9,148 million, which is £321 million (4%) higher than the previous financial year

• the provisional total for diesel receipts during the last complete financial year (2023 to 2024), is £15,413 million, which is £589 million (4%) lower than the previous financial year

About this release

This HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) publication provides quarterly provisional National Statistics of receipts and quantities released for consumption for excise duty charged on fuels and oils. National Statistics are accredited official statistics.

Duty is charged when motor and heating fuels and oils are produced, imported or used in the UK. These statistics include data for hydrocarbon (mineral) oils, biofuels, fuel substitutes and fuel additives.

The statistics in this release are based on data from recent and historic trader returns up to and including March 2024. Detailed statistics on clearances and receipts are provided in the accompanying tables.

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Impacts from the coronavirus pandemic and public health measures in response are particularly visible within changing trends to receipts collected for hydrocarbon oils during the 2020 to 2021 financial year.

Go to Coronavirus (COVID-19) for the latest coronavirus information and guidance.

Monthly hydrocarbon oils receipts

Total excise duty receipts are calculated by summing together excise duty receipts from all types of diesel, petrol, and other oils duties.

Figure 1: Total hydrocarbon oils receipts by month, covering the previous 3 financial years, in £ million.

For the full dataset that accompanies Chart 1 go to Hydrocarbon Oils Bulletin tables (January 2024 to March 2024).

Chart 1 demonstrates several trends for total hydrocarbon oils receipts:

• receipts have generally remained stable across the current financial year, with small peaks in May and February

• the decrease for receipts during the financial year 2022 to 2023 of £843 million (3.3%) compared to the 2021 to 2022 financial year is the net result of decreases in Unleaded petrol and Gas oil receipts being partially offset by increases in Bioethanol and Biodiesel receipts

• this year-on-year decrease, in the 2022-23 financial year compared to the 2021-22 financial year, is despite higher receipts in the most recent quarter of January 2023 to March 2023, compared to the same quarter last year

• the increase in Bioethanol receipts between 2021 and 2022 is in part due to the policy change in September 2021 to increase the amount of Bioethanol in Unleaded petrol from 5% to 10%

• decreases in Gas oil receipts are likely related to the removal of entitlement for most sectors to use the rebated gas oil variant known as ‘red diesel’ from 1 April 2022

• following significantly altered patterns for receipts during 2020 to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, during the previous two years they have returned to patterns more reflective of pre pandemic years, with generally flat receipts for most of the year and a drop in January as demand decreases

• although patterns for receipts reflect pre pandemic years, levels remain lower, for example provisional 2022 to 2023 total financial year receipts are £2,474 million (9.0%) below the total for the 2019 to 2020 financial year

Petrol and diesel excise duty receipts

Petrol excise duty

Total petrol excise duty receipts are calculated by summing together excise duty receipts from several different motor spirits, over 95% of which is unleaded petrol.

Figure 2: Petrol excise duty receipts by month, covering the previous 3 financial years, in £ million.

For the full dataset that accompanies Chart 2 go to Hydrocarbon Oils Bulletin tables (January 2024 to March 2024).

Chart 2 demonstrates several trends for petrol receipts:

• the provisional total for petrol receipts in the last complete financial year is £9,148 million, which is £321 million (3.6%) higher than the previous financial year

• provisional petrol receipts in the latest complete financial year were £852 million (8.8%) lower than pre-coronavirus levels in the financial year ending March 2020

Diesel excise duty

Total diesel excise duty receipts are calculated by summing together excise duty receipts from several different types of diesel.

Figure 3: Diesel excise duty receipts by month, covering the previous 3 financial years, in £ million.

For the full dataset that accompanies Chart 3 go to Hydrocarbon Oils Bulletin tables (January 2024 to March 2024).

Chart 3 demonstrates several trends for diesel receipts:

• the provisional total for diesel receipts in the last complete financial year is £15,413 million, which is £589 million (3.7%) lower than the previous financial year

• although patterns for diesel receipts reflect pre pandemic years, levels remain lower, for example provisional diesel receipts in the latest complete financial year were £1,275 million (7.4%) lower than pre-coronavirus levels in the financial year ending March 2020

• following significantly altered patterns for diesel receipts during 2020 to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, during the previous two years they have returned to patterns more reflective of pre pandemic years, with generally flat receipts for most of the year and a drop in January as demand decreases

• the overall decrease in Diesel Oil receipts can be in part explained by the more general consumer move away from Diesel cars and towards Alternative Fuelled Vehicles (AFV) including Electric and Hybrid Electric vehicles

Petrol and diesel excise duty comparison

Figure 4: Petrol and diesel excise duty receipts by quarter during the previous six financial years.

For the full dataset that accompanies Chart 4 go to Hydrocarbon Oils Bulletin tables (January 2024 to March 2024).

Chart 4 demonstrates several trends in diesel and petrol receipts over the last 6 years:

• since the first quarter of the financial year ending March 2022, petrol and diesel receipts have stabilised, albeit at a level lower than their pre-coronavirus norms. This is likely partly attributable to the 12 month reduction in fuel duties, from 23 March 2022

• since the calendar year 2017, petrol and diesel excise had plateaued until the first quarter of the financial year ending 2021 in which impacts from coronavirus pandemic resulted in a large unseasonal decrease for both petrol and excise duty receipts

• between the final quarter of the financial year ending 2020 and the first quarter of the financial year ending 2021, diesel excise receipts decreased from £4,007 million to £2,624 million and petrol excise receipts decreased from £2,256 million to £1,224 million, likely caused by economic impacts related to the coronavirus pandemic

Contacts

The Hydrocarbon Oils Bulletin is produced by the Indirect Tax Receipts Monitoring team as part of the Excise duties, VAT, and other indirect tax statistics collection.

For statistical enquiries, contact:

revenuemonitoring@hmrc.gov.uk\

For media enquiries, see HMRC press office.