We are facing the biggest energy crisis in history, according to the International Energy Agency. And it did not come out of nowhere. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and its consequences on global energy markets are the result of years of mounting tensions, while much of Europe looked the other way, convinced that security of supply was a problem of the past.
Spain's fuel industry, however, continued to move in the right direction. The latest available data show that liquid fuels accounted for 53.9% of final energy consumed in our country in 2025, a figure that has consistently exceeded 50% for two decades. And this demand, unlike in other European countries, is met almost entirely with products manufactured in our refineries: gasolines, diesel, and kerosenes made in Spain. Products, by the way, with an ever-increasing renewable proportion.
These data reflect how the fuel industry is the backbone of the Spanish energy system, moving 95% of passenger and freight transport, supplying raw materials for other industries (such as chemicals or textiles), and keeping hospitals, ports, and airports operational during extraordinary situations. In short, the industry of our daily lives, the one that ensures the country does not stop.
This structural presence is the result of investment decisions made by the fuel industry over the last 15 years. Because while other European countries chose to dismantle or close refineries (35 since 2009, 20% of production), the companies associated with our organization continued to bet on our refining system, the most flexible and competitive in the European Union.
This means that our eight refineries dedicated to fuel manufacturing are capable of processing, in a single month, 30 different types of crude oil from about 20 countries. When supply flows are disrupted by a geopolitical conflict, Spain has the real capacity to adapt and maximize production of the most demanded products. We saw this during the energy crisis of the Ukraine war. And we are seeing it now with the Iran war.
In this context, the question that should focus the national and European debate is precisely how to maintain that response capacity, that resilience in the face of instability. Because it does not arise from improvisation, but from infrastructure, integrated logistics systems, and productive investment. With planning. And these conditions share one trait: if lost, they cannot be recovered. The countries that did not bet on their refining system are suffering now.
The Iran crisis is a warning about what happens when security of supply is treated as a secondary variable in the energy trilemma. From the fuel industry, we share the goals of decarbonization and energy affordability, but an energy policy that neglects security of supply is an incomplete policy. And addressing security of supply requires investment and planning.
Our member companies are leading these investments to become even more resilient and competitive, and to continue advancing toward climate neutrality in 2050 and energy sovereignty. Investments that require certainty in the short, medium, and long term. Because Spain is a powerhouse in fuel manufacturing and has the opportunity to also be one in renewable fuels and green hydrogen, key pieces for the decarbonization of our economy.
To maintain this capacity to respond to uncertainty, and to do so in a competitive way with ever fewer emissions, the urgent implementation of a Strategic Plan for the Decarbonization of Refining is needed—a public-private action plan addressing four concrete priorities: (1) integrate refining into national and European strategies; (2) preserve security of supply and strategic autonomy associated with refined products; (3) strengthen the competitiveness of Spanish refineries; and (4) accelerate the industrial transformation of the sector through all available technological levers that reduce emissions.
The Iran war has reminded us that competitive advantages are built years in advance. Spain has them; we only need a regulatory framework that incentivizes and considers strategic the central piece of our guarantee and security of supply, both of energy and decarbonization: the fuel industry. An industry that, moreover, wants to continue being made in Spain.
Elena Mateos is the Director General of AICE (Spanish Fuel Industry Association)
