Drop in Fuel Consumption: In Eight Provinces, the Decline Exceeded 10%

Fuel sales to the public reached a total of 1,368,722 cubic meters of gasoline and diesel across the country in July 2026. Compared to the same month in 2025, this represented a decline of 6.4%, marking the sixth consecutive year-on-year decrease and the steepest drop since November 2024.

The data comes from a report by Politikon Chaco, based on records from the Ministry of Energy.

In comparison to the previous month (June 2026), sales showed an improvement of 2.8%, although when adjusting for the number of days in the month, the result reverses to a monthly decline of 0.5%. Compared to the same month in 2025, fuel sales recorded a year-on-year decline of 6.4%.

Furthermore, according to the study, 55% of the total sold in July corresponded to gasoline and 45% to diesel. In terms of performance, gasoline sales experienced a year-on-year drop of 7.4%, dragged down by declines in the super variety (-7.8%) and the premium line (-6.4%).

On the other hand, diesel dispatches suffered a year-on-year contraction of 5.1%, driven by a decrease in the common type (-7.0%) and, to a lesser extent, by the drop in premium (-1.9%).

YPF retained market leadership with a share of 55.7% in July, although it recorded a year-on-year decline of 5.2% in its sales, its most severe contraction since February 2025. Shell ranked second with 22.7% of operations, accompanied by a 7.0% drop compared to the same month of the previous year. Meanwhile, Axion (operated by PAE) captured 12.1% of total sales, with a 3.8% decline in its volumes sold.

The rest of the companies accounted for the remaining 9.4% of sales, with a grouped year-on-year variation of -14.7%. It is worth noting that this figure is partially affected by the lack of sales recorded by the company Refinor, likely due to a data entry issue. However, this absence of information does not significantly alter the overall result for the month.

The provincial map for July highlighted the recessionary impact on fuel sales: only three jurisdictions achieved positive growth compared to the previous year, with minimal advances in La Pampa (0.7%), Neuquén (0.5%), and Santiago del Estero (0.2%).

In contrast, the remaining 21 districts operated at a loss, showing strong geographical disparity. A group of eight provinces showed moderate declines below the national average, while on the other end, eight jurisdictions suffered double-digit declines, with the Northwest being the hardest hit: Salta fell by 15.9%, Jujuy by 16.4%, and Tucumán led the losses with a drop of 22.4%.

According to the report, in the cumulative total for the first seven months of the year, fuel sales to the public across the country totaled 9.58 million m³, reaching the lowest volume for that period since 2021. Compared to the same period in 2025, the sector shows a decrease of 2.1%, driven by declines in both diesel (-2.3%) and gasoline (-1.9%).

Among the provinces, only five closed the period with positive results: Chaco and Santa Fe recorded a recovery of 0.8% (in both cases driven by diesel); Neuquén grew by 0.6% (with greater push from gasoline); while La Pampa (0.4%) and San Juan (0.2%) also noted improvements explained by diesel.

These were very weak advances in all cases. In contrast, the jurisdictions with the worst relative performances in the cumulative total were Santa Cruz (-7.6%), Misiones (-8.9%), and Corrientes (-9.8%).

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