Bulgaria gasoline price history: weekly petrol and diesel, tax and Europe
Petrol and diesel prices move weekly, and much of that movement is tax, not oil. This tool reads the European Commission's Weekly Oil Bulletin to show Bulgaria's pre-tax and tax components since 2008, compares them with 15 other countries, and adds a scenario calculator built from Bulgaria's own excise duty and VAT rate.
Open the fuel data Free, no sign-up. The tool has a full English mode; the underlying series come from the Weekly Oil Bulletin.How it works
Three layers: the raw price, the tax split, and a scenario you control.
Read the weekly price
Petrol A95 and diesel prices for Bulgaria and 15 other European countries, published weekly by the European Commission since 2005, with Bulgaria's own series starting 7 January 2008.
See what's tax and what isn't
Each price splits into a pre-tax and a tax component. Where excise, VAT and other-tax figures reconcile against the total, currently every country except Germany, Poland and Slovenia, that split is shown in full.
Build your own price scenario
Enter a barrel price, exchange rate and margin, and the calculator adds Bulgaria's actual excise duty and 20% VAT on top. It is explicitly a what-if tool, not a prediction of tomorrow's price.
What's measured and what you control
The bulletin gives the facts, the scenario calculator gives you the dials.
Built from one weekly bulletin, not a blend of guesses
Where the source data has a real limit, the tool shows the limit instead of papering over it.
One weekly source since 2005
Every price point comes from the European Commission's Weekly Oil Bulletin, the same file used for all 16 countries shown, so Bulgaria's numbers are directly comparable to the rest without a separate conversion or estimate.
Tax split only where it reconciles
The excise, VAT and other-tax breakdown is shown only for countries where those three add up to the measured pre-tax to post-tax gap, within 3%. Germany, Poland and Slovenia currently don't reconcile, likely due to extra national charges such as Germany's carbon price on fuel, so their total tax gap is shown without a further split.
A scenario, honestly labelled as one
There is no free, live price for a barrel of crude oil, so the calculator does not pretend to forecast one. It asks for a barrel price, an exchange rate and a margin, then applies Bulgaria's actual measured excise duty and VAT rate on top of those assumptions.
Gaps stay gaps
Not every country has a value for every week, for example Bulgaria has no reading for 27 November 2023. Rather than fill that in with a zero or an interpolated guess, the missing week is left as a gap in the series.
What goes into a liter of fuel
The bulletin measures the total pre-tax price; it doesn't separate crude oil from the margin on top of it.
| Component | Shown here | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-tax price (crude + refining + margin) | Yes, as one combined figure | The bulletin reports the pre-tax total, not its sub-components |
| Excise duty | Yes, where the tax split reconciles | Measured directly from the bulletin's tax tables |
| VAT | Yes, where the tax split reconciles | Measured directly from the bulletin's tax tables |
| Live crude oil barrel price | No | Requires a paid or key-gated feed (e.g. EIA); none is used here |
Splitting the pre-tax price further, into crude oil, refining and retail margin, would need a live barrel price benchmark. That data sits behind a registered API key this tool does not have, so the scenario calculator asks for a barrel price assumption instead of inventing one.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the fuel price data come from?
The European Commission's Weekly Oil Bulletin, published since 2005 and covering petrol A95 and diesel prices, with and without tax, for a set of European countries including Bulgaria. Bulgaria's own series starts on 7 January 2008, a little after the bulletin's overall start, even though the country joined the EU on 1 January 2007.
Is the scenario calculator predicting future fuel prices?
No, and it says so on the label. There is no free, unrestricted source for a live or historical crude oil barrel price, so instead of guessing one, the calculator asks for a barrel price, exchange rate and margin assumption. It then adds Bulgaria's actual measured excise duty and 20% VAT rate to whatever scenario is built.
Why don't all countries show a full excise/VAT/other-tax breakdown?
That breakdown is only shown where the three tax components add up to within 3% of the measured gap between the pre-tax and post-tax price. As measured, Germany, Poland and Slovenia fall outside that tolerance, likely because of extra national charges not captured in the standard three-part breakdown, such as Germany's carbon pricing on fuel. Their total tax gap is still shown, just not split further.
How often is the data updated, and what happens when a week is missing?
The bulletin, and this tool with it, updates weekly. Not every country reports a value every week; when one is missing, for example Bulgaria on 27 November 2023, the tool leaves a gap in the series rather than showing a zero or interpolating a guess.
Are the prices shown in euro or leva?
Euro throughout. The European Commission's bulletin already publishes prices in euro, converted by the Commission itself at that week's exchange rate, so this tool does not convert them a second time. Excise duty and other national taxes, which are set in the local currency, are converted separately using that same week's rate so they can be checked against the already-euro price.
Does the crude oil price shown separate the raw material from refining and retail margin?
No. The bulletin reports one combined pre-tax figure, crude oil, refining and distribution margins together, and does not break that figure down further. Separating a raw crude oil cost would require a live benchmark price, such as EIA's Brent spot series, which sits behind a registered API key this tool does not use.
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