ERSE Upgrades Its Combustíveis e Gás Comparator to Real-Time Data — New Top-10 Cheapest Board Adds HVO Alongside Petrol, Diesel and Botijas as Middle-East Volatility Bites

Portugal's energy regulator ERSE on Thursday, 23 April 2026, pushed a substantial upgrade to its public price comparator for fuel and bottled gas. The tool now runs on real-time data rather than monthly averages, publishes a live top-10 of the cheapest stations in the country, and has expanded its scope to include HVO — the renewable diesel substitute — alongside petrol, conventional diesel, and the butane and propane botijas that heat kitchens across the country.

The change matters because it closes the gap between what drivers and gas-buyers pay at the counter and what the regulator shows them online. Under the previous version of the tool, volatility in international markets — and there has been plenty of that since the escalation between Washington, Israel and Tehran — could take weeks to show up in ERSE's data. From today, that lag is gone.

What the Upgraded Tool Does

The comparator lives on ERSE's website and works as a public utility: no login, no paywall. Users can filter by segment (oil companies, low-cost distributors, hypermarkets), by brand, by municipality (concelho) or by parish (freguesia). Filters can be combined. The system distinguishes simple from additised fuel and — for botijas — separates industrial distributors from the hypermarket chains that have muscled into the segment over the past two years.

The most visible new feature is the national top-10. At any given moment, the tool surfaces the ten cheapest prices in Portugal for each product, with the exact station or retailer identified and located. That single board has the potential to concentrate demand on outliers and push national averages downward — which is, broadly, the reason competition regulators like these tools in the first place.

Why the Timing Matters

The upgrade lands at an awkward moment for the supply side. The war in the Middle East has already pushed Galp to reroute jet fuel imports away from the Persian Gulf, and the same escalation is filtering through to retail fuel and bottled-gas prices in Portugal. Botija prices jumped in April — retailers' association ANAREC warned at the end of March that the 13-kilogram bottle would rise by around €3 and the 45-kilogram cylinder by €15. ERSE itself flagged last month that bottled gas was selling for up to 8.4% more than the reference price in April.

The government has responded by raising the means-tested support for vulnerable households buying botijas from €15 to €25 and by extending the professional-diesel discount. Those measures cushion the poorest households but do not change the underlying price. What the ERSE tool does is put every consumer — expats included — in a position to find the cheapest option within a 15-minute drive rather than relying on habit or loyalty.

How to Use It

For anyone who has just arrived in Portugal, the combinations worth remembering are straightforward. In petrol and diesel, low-cost distributors such as Prio and the hypermarket chains — especially Auchan, Intermarché and Pingo Doce/Continente in the Algarve and Greater Lisbon — routinely sit at the cheap end of the table. On botijas, the same low-cost and hypermarket segment typically beats the incumbents by a few euros per bottle.

For new residents still mapping their monthly energy bill, the tool is a useful reality check on local advice. It is, finally, live — and for the rest of 2026, it is likely to matter more than it did in 2025.