ARCHIVED - Price of butane gas canisters in Spain reaches 6-year high

Further woe for Spanish households already facing record high electricity bills

With temperatures forecast to reach 40 degrees in various parts of Spain over the weekend the price of butane gas canisters may seem an irrelevance to those who rely on them only for heating, but for the millions of households which also use the canisters for cooking and heating water the news that the price has reached a six-year high will be most unwelcome.

In recent years butane gas prices have generally fallen in summer, but the two-monthly price review which was announced this week continues an upward trend which has lasted since November 2020. In the intervening 8 months the maximum permitted sale price has risen by 27 per cent from 12.09 euros to 15.37 euros, placing further strain on household budgets already stretched by all-time highs in monthly electricity bills.

(This price is set for the traditional 12.5-kilo canister: those weighing under 9 kilos may be sold at lower prices.)

When the bi-monthly review process was introduced in 2014 the price being paid across Spain was 17.50 euros for each canister of butane, but by July 2017 the figure had fallen dramatically to 11.27€. However, it then bounced back to 14.89 euros in July 2018 and since then has fluctuated before the latest series of increases took it back to its highest level since 2015.

Bear in mind that many sales outlets also add their own handling charges for gas bottle sales; this can add as much as three euros to the price of a gas bottle. Petrol stations, although convenient, are often the most expensive places in which to purchase gas, and there is intense competition amongst the rival stations for your business. Often, petrol stations will take silver cans and issue purchasers with their own branded bottles, which can only be exchanged in their petrol stations, so be aware of this when being offered a branded bottle.