Peru's Fuel Bill Topped a Billion Dollars in September. Why Wasn't It Just the Price?

In June 2026, Peru paid US$535 million for imported diesel, gasoline, and other refined fuels. In September it paid US$1.03 billion, nearly twice as much, three months later. The easy answer is oil: a war around the Strait of Hormuz pushed crude back above US$100 a barrel. But the customs declarations carry a second number next to the dollars, the weight, and the weight tells a different story. Peru did not just pay more for its fuel. It bought a lot more of it. This edition follows the cargoes: how much came in, from where, to which ports, and what the record can and cannot tell us about why.

A billion-dollar month, built over three

Refined fuels (HS 2710) are Peru's largest single import. In September 2026 they were 15.6% of everything the country brought in, up from 9.0% in June. The bill did not jump in one go. It climbed for three straight months: US$535 million in June, US$652 million in July, US$829 million in August, and US$1.03 billion in September, the highest month since our series began in January 2026.

Put the quarters side by side and the shift is plain. From July to September, Peru imported US$2.51 billion of refined fuels, 30.4% more than from April to June. September alone was up 24.3% from August. That is the largest import line in the country moving by a quarter in a single month, while total imports rose only 3.6%. Fuel did most of the lifting for the whole import bill.

The field that splits price from volume

Here is where the weight data earns its keep. Between June and September, the tonnage of refined fuels rose 56.8%, from 446,269 to 699,696 tonnes. The value per tonne, a rough proxy for price, rose 22.8%, from about US$1,199 to US$1,473. So most of the three-month increase came from volume: more ships, more tanks filled. In September alone the split was even, with tonnage and value per tonne each up 11.5% from August.

The chart also holds a small surprise. September's tonnage was not a record. Peru brought in 707,051 tonnes of refined fuels in March, about 1% more than in September. What changed is what each tonne cost: about US$1,026 in March against US$1,473 in September. The same volume, roughly 42% more money.

Now the price side. The World Bank's average crude oil price was US$81.7 a barrel in June, US$79.8 in July, US$84.4 in August, and US$102.3 in September. Brent closed at US$101.21 on 9 September, its highest close since May (CNBC), and rose to US$107.82 on 14 September after attacks on shipping in the strait and on a Saudi pipeline (Al Jazeera). Al Jazeera notes that before the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February, about one-fifth of global oil supplies flowed through Hormuz.

Compare September with April, when crude averaged a similar US$103.9 a barrel. In April Peru imported 604,944 tonnes of refined fuels; in September, 15.7% more. And each tonne cost more in September (US$1,473 against about US$1,311 in April), even though crude was slightly cheaper. Refined products do not track crude one for one, and the customs record does not say which part of the chain added the extra cost. What it does show is that September combined high prices with high volume, which is why the bill broke a billion.

At home, the price wave was hard to miss. Gestión reported that Peru's fuel suppliers had applied their ninth change in fuel prices in little more than a month by mid-September, mostly upward, and quoted the energy minister saying that half of the fuel the country consumes has to be imported. BBVA Research reported that annual inflation in Peru rose to 4.5% in September, with a 5.2% rise in vehicle fuels among the supply-side pressures.

Where the extra fuel came from

The United States is Peru's main fuel supplier by far. ComexPerú, using SUNAT figures, reported that 93.4% of the diesel Peru imported from January to August 2026 came from the United States. In September, refined fuels from the U.S. were US$701 million, little changed from US$710 million in August. The extra came from elsewhere: Canada rose to US$234 million from US$51 million, Japan to US$55 million from almost nothing, and South Korea to US$15 million from US$3.5 million.

That moved the map. The U.S. share of Peru's refined fuel imports fell to 68.0% in September from 85.6% in August, not because U.S. cargoes shrank but because others arrived alongside them. Most Canadian fuel left from Vancouver, landing at Callao (US$87.1 million), Matarani in the south (US$78.0 million), and Pisco (US$46.7 million).

Before anyone redraws the trade routes: Canada's cargoes to Peru are lumpy. Its refined fuel shipments were US$83 million in June and almost nothing in July. A few tankers can swing the monthly figure by a hundred million dollars or more. We searched Peruvian and international coverage for a reason behind the September Canadian cargoes and found none. The data shows the ships, not the contracts behind them.

The refinery that went quiet

There is a second fuel story in September, and it runs through Talara, the northern port where Peru's state oil company, Petroperú, operates its main refinery. Crude petroleum imports (HS 2709) rose 27.0% to US$395 million in September from US$311 million in August, and US$172 million of it landed at Talara, against US$22 million in August.

The August low has a documented cause. At the end of July, Petroperú said Talara's operations were temporarily halted, citing a restriction in crude supply arising from the company's current liquidity conditions together with a port closure for abnormal swells (Energiminas). In mid-August, the energy minister said the refinery was running at about 60,000 barrels a day, about 63% of its 95,000-barrel capacity (Reporte Minero).

September's Talara cargoes came mainly from U.S. Gulf ports (New Orleans, Corpus Christi, and Houston), with others from Argentina and Ecuador. My read: the rebound looks like the refinery restocking after a month of thin crude deliveries. That is an interpretation, not something the customs data proves; we have no public statement from Petroperú on its September crude purchases.

There is a link between the two stories, too. When a domestic refinery runs below capacity, more of the country's diesel and gasoline has to come in already refined. Gestión reported in June that diesel imports had reached about 58,000 barrels a day, up from 50,000 at the start of the year, while local diesel output was falling. Whether Talara's troubles explain part of September's refined fuel volume is plausible, but not proven here.

Trade with the U.S.

All this fuel makes the United States a bigger presence in Peru's import bill. Peru's imports from the U.S. were US$1.51 billion in September 2026, 22.9% of the total and the highest month this year, up from US$1.27 billion in August (20.0% of the total). The official U.S. view, from Census data that runs through August, points the same way: U.S. exports to Peru were US$1.42 billion in August, up from US$1.13 billion in July.

In the Census view, refined fuels were US$653.6 million of those August exports, against US$442.3 million in July. The two views never match exactly. Peru records imports at CIF value (including freight and insurance) when goods clear customs; the U.S. records exports at FAS value when they leave. A tanker that sails from Houston in late August can clear in Callao in September. Read side by side, though, both views agree that U.S. fuel shipments to Peru rose in the third quarter of 2026. The central bank told the same story for August: Peru's imports rose mainly because of higher purchases of petroleum and derivatives (El Comercio, citing BCRP), and BCRP figures showed import prices up 14% from a year earlier in August (Revista Economía).

The payoff

So why did Peru's fuel bill nearly double in three months? Mostly because the country bought more fuel, and partly because that fuel cost more, with the Hormuz conflict behind the price. September added two twists: extra cargoes from Canada, Japan, and South Korea alongside steady U.S. supply, and a crude rebound at Talara after the refinery's July stoppage. What the data cannot yet tell us is whether the extra volume is stockpiling that will unwind, or demand that sticks. The fuel feeds a growing fleet: truck imports rose 33.6% to US$334 million in September, and passenger cars rose 10.8% to US$311 million.

What to watch

• October customs data (in the November edition): if fuel tonnage falls while value per tonne stays near US$1,473, the price is doing the work; if tonnage keeps rising, Peru is still restocking.
• Talara's operating rate: any Petroperú or energy ministry update on runs above the 60,000 barrels a day reported in mid-August, and whether crude cargoes to Talara stay near September's level.
• Canada's next cargo: whether Canadian refined fuel stays above US$200 million a month or falls back, as it did after June.
• The BCRP's September trade balance, for an official check on the fuel bill against our US$1.03 billion.
• INEI's October inflation figure (early November), after BBVA's 4.5% reading for September with vehicle fuels up 5.2%.

Sources

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Tier 2

• Tier 2 CNBC. Brent crude oil tops $101 to close at highest level since May as fighting escalates in Persian Gulf. 2026-09-09 archive
• Tier 2 Al Jazeera. US says it’s clearing Hormuz traffic: Why are oil futures beyond $100?. 2026-09-14 archive
• Tier 2 Al Jazeera. Oil prices surge after Trump rejects Iran’s plan to reopen Strait of Hormuz. 2026-09-28 archive
• Tier 2 Gestión. Diésel supera los S/ 28 por galón en el sur: precios mayoristas de combustibles al alza. 2026-09-17 archive
• Tier 2 BBVAResearch. Peru | Inflation remained high in September, pressured by supply factors. 2026-10-01 archive
• Tier 2 Infomercado. El Perú depende de un solo país para su diésel, maíz y fertilizantes, ¿quién?. 2026-10-12 archive
• Tier 2 Energiminas. Petroperú: Operaciones de la Refinería Talara se encuentran temporalmente detenidas. 2026-07-30 archive
• Tier 2 Reporte Minero. Refinería Talara opera al 63% de capacidad: MINEM investigará causas del bajo rendimiento. 2026-08-17 archive
• Tier 2 Gestión. GLP: importación ya roza la mitad del consumo y El Niño amenaza el suministro, ¿y el precio?. 2026-06-23 archive
• Tier 2 El Comercio Perú. Superávit comercial del Perú superó los US$30.000 millones entre enero y agosto, según BCR. 2026-10-18 archive
• Tier 2 Revista Economía. Términos de intercambio del Perú crecieron 14,3% en agosto por mayores precios de exportación. 2026-10-15 archive