The oil company informed on Monday Shell in Germany wrote to its major customers that all of the company’s products, from heating oil and diesel to lubricating grease, were only offered in limited quantities and some were no longer offered at alln. This applies to quantities procured at short notice, i.e. everyone who does not have an existing supply contract with Shell. The letter is available to the Handelsblatt. An insider reports that other oil companies are said to have restricted trading on the spot market. The Bloomberg news agency had previously reported that Shell was restricting the sale of heating oil products in Germany.
The war in Ukraine, supply chain problems and high demand have “resulted in massive disruptions and shortages in the energy markets,” writes Shell in the letter to its dealers. This also has an impact on the German mineral oil market. That’s why you have to inform your customers that the “leeway to fulfill our contractual obligations is becoming narrower due to these circumstances that we cannot influence”. The sale of heating oil, diesel and other products on the spot market will be restricted and sometimes even stopped altogether. So one hopes “to be able to fulfill existing contractual obligations.”
For end customers, this means that things at the pump will continue to run as before. In Germany, the largest quantities of petroleum products are traded via long-term contracts. However, dealers can normally also buy additional quantities on a daily basis. From now on, this is only possible to a limited extent or not at all. However, the supply is still guaranteed, emphasized the German petroleum association Fuels and Energy at the request of the Handelsblatt.