'bill for place itself'

Sakko Commercial applies to build border filling station in ‘already overcrowded’ Essen

Lokale media vrezen dat de komst van Sakko Commercial naar het Belgische Essen tot nóg meer tanktoerisme uit Nederland zal gaan leiden. Foto: ProMedia, 2026

Sakko Commercial has applied to the Belgian municipality of Essen to build a service station. The application is causing unrest as the border town just south of Roosendaal is already said to be struggling with congested streets due to mass tank tourism from the Netherlands.

The application submitted by Sakko Commercial concerns the realisation of a new service station on Kapelstraat in Essen. The new Sakko should come on the site on the N133 where a Dekkers service station was located until recently. Until 16 June 2026, the application is available for all to see in the town hall of the Belgian border town.

The possible arrival of Sakko to the border town, about five kilometres south of Roosendaal, is causing a stir in the local media. In an online article, news site Noordernieuws wonders how much extra tanker traffic Essen can swallow. While petrol tourism is already causing extra traffic and annoyance, a plan for a service station is resurfacing, according to the medium. Where Dutch petrol tourists fill up their tanks cheaper in Belgium, Essen will foot the bill, it says.

According to Noordernieuws, Essen does not have to become a cheap fuel strip for the Netherlands. According to the medium, a border municipality is “more than just an interesting location for pumps, price posts and fuel margins”.

60 euro cents

Belgium has been facing fuel tourism from the Netherlands since the Iran crisis broke out on 28 February 2026. At some Belgian filling stations in the border region, the price for a litre of Euro95 is around sixty euro cents less than in the Netherlands. Consumers who fill up across the border immediately do their shopping there. According to estimates, the Netherlands misses out on a billion euros in sales every year this way.

Sakko operates over fifty filling stations in the Netherlands. The network consists of both manned and unmanned locations, spread across the Sakko Tankstations, BP and Esso brands.

Also read:

This article was automatically translated from the Dutch language original to English (British).

Author: Paul Blonk

Source: MobilityEnergy.com

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