Μake us preferred on Google Greek households are bracing for a brutal winter, as heating oil is projected to launch at 2 euros per liter when distribution begins on October 15. The warning comes from Nikos Papageorgiou, President of the Athens Petrol Station Owners’ Association, who says the fuel market is enduring its longest sustained price surge since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
According to Papageorgiou, prices have been climbing daily by half a cent to a full cent since early August, pushing the nationwide average for both petrol and diesel to 2.20 euros per liter—despite existing government subsidies. That relentless, incremental rise has now set the stage for an alarming start to the heating season.
If current trends hold, a standard order of 500 liters of heating oil will cost consumers 1,000 euros right from the season’s opening days—a burden that threatens to drain household budgets before winter’s coldest months even arrive.
Tax Deadlock and a Call for European Action
The persistent price pressure has revived calls for cuts to the Special Consumption Tax (EFK) and VAT, both of which weigh heavily on final fuel prices. The government, however, remains reluctant to act. Officials are said to be relying on the additional VAT revenue generated by high fuel prices as a fiscal cushion to help fund electricity subsidies elsewhere in the economy.
Papageorgiou argues that any meaningful relief will have to come from Brussels rather than Athens. He is calling on the European Union to show decisive leadership by granting member states the fiscal flexibility needed to implement immediate tax relief on fuel.
Without such intervention, he warns, Greek consumers face a winter defined by soaring heating costs layered atop already elevated prices at the pump—a squeeze that could prove especially punishing for lower- and middle-income households as temperatures drop.
