Diesel Loss Cost per Month at SAR 1.79 a Litre

Short answer

Aramco lists diesel at SAR 1.79 a litre for October 2026. Monthly loss in SAR equals litres used per month, times the unexplained loss percentage, times 1.79. A site using 10,000 litres a month that cannot explain 2% loses 200 litres, which is SAR 358 a month or SAR 4,296 a year.

Key takeaways

Aramco’s retail fuels page lists diesel at SAR 1.79 a litre for October 2026; the price rose 7.8% to that level on 1 January 2026.
Monthly loss (SAR) = monthly diesel use (L) x unexplained loss (%) x price per litre (SAR).
At 2%, every 10,000 litres a month means 200 litres and SAR 358 lost each month, or SAR 4,296 a year.
The loss percentage applies to the diesel that passes through the tank, not to the tank size, so busy sites with small tanks can lose more than quiet sites with large ones.
Payback months = one-off hardware cost / (monthly loss you expect to recover - monthly monitoring fee). Use your own quote for both costs.

01The 2026 diesel price, and where to check it

Every number in this article starts from one input: the price you pay per litre. Aramco publishes in-Kingdom retail prices on its retail fuels page, and the table titled "Prices for the month of October 2026" lists diesel at SAR 1.79 a litre. Okaz and the energy newsletter MEES both reported that Aramco raised diesel by 7.8% to SAR 1.79 a litre, effective 1 January 2026. Many companies do not buy at the pump. They buy through a distributor, with delivery fees, contract discounts or credit terms on top. That is why the formula below keeps the price as a separate input. Use SAR 1.79 if you want a quick estimate, then replace it with the real cost per litre from your last invoice, including delivery. The page on Aramco’s site is labelled by month, so check it again before a budget meeting or a supplier review, and write the month next to the price in your sheet.

02The formula: litres used, loss percentage, price

The math needs three numbers. First, monthly diesel use in litres: the fuel that goes into generators, machines or vehicles from this tank in one month. Second, the unexplained loss percentage: the part of that fuel you cannot match to a delivery note, a meter reading or a known job. Third, the price per litre. Monthly loss in SAR equals use times loss percentage times price. For example, 10,000 litres x 2% = 200 litres, and 200 litres x SAR 1.79 = SAR 358. Multiply by 12 for the yearly figure, which here is SAR 4,296. To find your own percentage, reconcile one month: opening stock plus deliveries, minus fuel issued, minus closing stock. What is left is the gap. Divide it by fuel issued. This article uses 1%, 2% and 5% only as example inputs, not as typical rates, because we found no published Saudi benchmark. Your own reconciliation is the only number that should go in a budget.

03Why tank size matters less than fuel throughput

A common mistake is to apply the loss percentage to the tank capacity. A 30,000 litre tank that is filled once a quarter moves far less fuel than a 10,000 litre tank refilled every week. Losses happen when fuel moves: during deliveries, during transfers to machines, and during the hours when a site is quiet and nobody is watching. So the loss percentage belongs on monthly throughput. The worked table below still shows a typical tank size for each example site, because buyers think in tank sizes, but the SAR figures come from monthly use. Two other points belong in the same check. Diesel volume changes with temperature, so a small gap between a hot delivery and a cool morning reading is not always missing fuel. And every level sensor has a stated accuracy, so a gap smaller than the sensor’s error band is not evidence on its own. Treat a gap as unexplained only after these two causes are ruled out.

04How small losses add up across many sites

One site losing SAR 358 a month rarely gets attention. The problem shows when the same gap repeats. Ten sites, each using 10,000 litres a month with a 2% gap, lose 2,000 litres a month. At SAR 1.79 that is SAR 3,580 a month and SAR 42,960 a year, before any delivery fees are added. The same ten sites at 5% lose SAR 8,950 a month. These figures matter for three people. The finance team sees fuel as a large cost line with no breakdown. The operations manager sees tanks run low earlier than planned and orders extra deliveries. The site supervisor is asked questions that paper logs cannot answer. A monthly reconciliation per site, done the same way everywhere, turns the gap into a number each person can act on. It also shows which sites are clean, so effort goes to the two or three that are not, rather than to all of them at once.

05Payback: when tank monitoring is worth it, and what ENTEK does

Before buying any monitoring, run a simple payback check. Payback in months equals the one-off hardware and installation cost, divided by the monthly loss you expect to recover minus the monthly monitoring fee. If the result is negative, or longer than the life of the contract, keep your manual reconciliation. Use real quotes for both costs, and assume you recover only part of the gap, not all of it. ENTEK Fuel Tank is a built-in module of ENTEK IoT. It shows each tank’s fill level and litres, records refuel and drop events with the litres before and after, and marks tanks Low below 35% and Critical below 20%, with thresholds you can set per tank. A sudden drop raises an unexplained drop alert; the platform reports the drop and does not diagnose its cause. Rules are checked every 30 seconds and alerts reach named people by email, SMS or WhatsApp, usually within about a minute. Probes and installation come through the ENTEK marketplace and RFQ at entek.ai.

Worked example at SAR 1.79 a litre: monthly cost of an unexplained loss (1%, 2% and 5% are example inputs, not benchmarks)
Example site	Tank size	Diesel used per month	Loss at 1%	Loss at 2%	Loss at 5%	2% over 12 months
Standby generator at a branch	2,000 L	3,000 L	30 L = SAR 53.70	60 L = SAR 107.40	150 L = SAR 268.50	SAR 1,288.80
Construction site	10,000 L	10,000 L	100 L = SAR 179	200 L = SAR 358	500 L = SAR 895	SAR 4,296
Fleet or equipment depot	30,000 L	20,000 L	200 L = SAR 358	400 L = SAR 716	1,000 L = SAR 1,790	SAR 8,592
Large industrial site	50,000 L	50,000 L	500 L = SAR 895	1,000 L = SAR 1,790	2,500 L = SAR 4,475	SAR 21,480
Ten sites at 10,000 L each	10 x 10,000 L	100,000 L	1,000 L = SAR 1,790	2,000 L = SAR 3,580	5,000 L = SAR 8,950	SAR 42,960

Monthly cost of a 2% unexplained loss, by example site

Standby generator at a branch107.4 SAR

Construction site358 SAR

Fleet or equipment depot716 SAR

Large industrial site1,790 SAR

Ten sites at 10,000 L each3,580 SAR

Worked example in this article at SAR 1.79 a litre (Aramco, October 2026); 2% is an example input, not a benchmark

Figures and sources

In-Kingdom retail diesel price listed by Aramco for October 2026: SAR 1.79 per litre (Source: Aramco, Retail fuels (Prices for the month of October 2026), as of 2026-10-19)
Increase in the Saudi diesel price announced by Aramco, effective 1 January 2026: 7.8% (Source: MEES, Saudi increases diesel prices (2 January 2026), as of 2026-10-19)
Date the SAR 1.79 diesel price took effect: 1 January 2026 (Source: Okaz, Aramco raises diesel price by 7.8% to 1.79 riyals per litre, as of 2026-10-19)

Questions

What is the diesel price in Saudi Arabia in 2026?

Aramco’s retail fuels page lists diesel at SAR 1.79 a litre for October 2026. Okaz and MEES reported that the price rose 7.8% to SAR 1.79 on 1 January 2026. Your contract price from a distributor may differ, so use your invoice cost in the formula.

How do I calculate how much diesel I am losing each month?

Reconcile one month: opening stock plus deliveries, minus fuel issued, minus closing stock. The remainder is your gap in litres. Multiply it by your price per litre for the SAR figure, and divide it by fuel issued to get your loss percentage.

Is a 2% loss normal for a diesel tank?

We found no published Saudi benchmark, so this article uses 2% only as an example. Part of a small gap can come from temperature changes in diesel volume or from sensor and dipstick error. Compare your sites with each other and look closely at the ones that stand out.

How fast does ENTEK alert me when a tank level drops suddenly?

Fuel Tank rules are checked every 30 seconds, and the alert reaches the named people by email, SMS or WhatsApp, usually within about a minute. The alert reports an unexplained drop; it does not decide whether the cause is theft, a leak or a transfer.

How do I know if tank monitoring will pay for itself?

Divide the one-off hardware and installation cost by the monthly loss you expect to recover minus the monthly monitoring fee. Get both costs from real quotes, for example through an RFQ on the ENTEK marketplace at entek.ai, and assume you recover only part of the gap.

Diesel at SAR 1.79 a Litre: What an Unexplained 2% Monthly Loss Costs a Site