Well Guys if you thought the price of gas was upsetting spare a thought for the Ozzies!!! Fuel in town has just hit..... $1.46 PER LITRE!!! That's about $6.57 PER GALLON!!!! $20.00 AUS ( $27.00 US) buys you just over 3 gallons!! We use the same source as you guys as well. Maybe we could start a small thread about who pays what for their hobby?? Just out of interest. Cheers, #00341
In Georgia, for 93 octane premium unleaded around the Atlanta area, it's about $3.00/gallon. Traveling around the southeast this week, North/South Carolina, Florida and Georgia, saw regular unleaded range from $2.49 on up to about $2.89. Add 10 cents per grade for the 2 higher grades. Diesel is even worse for the trucks, about $2.95 is the going rate in the southeast per gallon, would hate to have to fill two 100 gallon fuel tanks. Whitey, I lived in Adelaide from 1991-1994 while stationed at the RAAF base, and I think I remember paying around .55 cents per litre, if that sounds right. I would spend a $50 AUS like I would spend a $20 USD. Venezuela is paying 14 cents per gallon, but they're on one of the largest reserves going, and with a have and have not society, I guess many people don't own cars. Here is the currently global listing. http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/global_gasprices/price.html
yes in New Zealand we seem to be having a price rise weekly and will only get worse i imagaine - currently NZ$1.76 per litre for 96oct (thats NZ$7.92 per gallon) which translates to about US$5.02 per gallon -
Hello Whitey We are a little more lucky in Queensland - our fuel is a few cents cheaper than the Southern Australian states. If little John Howard had some balls he would do what most people are asking him to do and have an enquiry into price collusion between the oil companies. Last week were were approaching a long weekend with Monday being a public holiday, and the price of fuel goes up 10 cents a litre....He's probably getting a percentage on the side. No wonder the budget is in surplus..
It really is insane that everyones gas prices are skyrocketing and oil companies are reporting record profits, and no one is doing anything. If there really was any kind of shortage, they wouldn't be making that much money, so it must just be price gouging. And on a college budget, I can barely fill my tank to get to work. jim
I know you, and everyone else, is looking for someone to blame for high gas prices but you've got it all wrong. The oil companies are not to blame. That's not what you want to hear so you probably won't believe me but that is the reality. They are benefiting from the high prices but they are not causing the high prices. Simply put, oil and gas prices are determined on world commodity markets. They are NOT determined by the oil companies. The oil companies sell their oil for whatever the market will pay, whether that's $10 per barrel or $70 per barrel. And while the foundation of the price is supply and demand, there's a lot more than supply and demand that determines what the markets will pay for oil. I'm not going to bore you with the specifics of the situation in this thread but the average American needs to better understand the realities of the market for oil since it significantly affects their lifestyle. If you would like me to explain further, I would be happy to but I don't necessarily want to stray any further off the original subject of the thread. Randall
Hi Randall One of the excuses we hear over in Aust is that oil is going up because of all the infrastructure going on in China and as such have a strong demand of oil. What confuses me is that in one of our National newspapers a couple of weeks ago, it printed what the countries around the world are paying for fuel per litre (AUD equilivant) and China are paying less for fuel per litre than what we are paying in Australia? If they have such a strong demand and are using a baulk of the oil supply why arent they paying more for their fuel. Rohan
True, Chinese demand is up. That is one component that is helping contribute to the current $69 oil price. The cnn link posted above by The Commissioner shows the wide spectrum of gas prices from country to country. Gas prices are different from oil prices in a few significant respects. In particular, taxes, subsidies, refining capacity and "oil rights" or ownership of the resource. The cnn link shows the following prices per gallon as of I assume today's date 6/9/06. AUSTRALIA SYDNEY $2.63 CHINA TIANJIN $1.54 CHINA SHANGHAI $1.48 NORWAY STAVANGER $5.07 NORWAY OSLO $4.93 As for taxes, the gas we buy at the pump is taxed differently in different countries. It also varies by state here in the US. In April of 2006, the average breakdown for gas at the pump in the US is as follows. Link. 17% - Taxes 3% - Distribution & Marketing 26% - Refining 54% - Crude oil So here in the US in April we were averaging 17% in Taxes right now. I can't tell you what the taxes are in Australia or China but you will notice it is the third largest component here in the US. In some other countries such as Norway, the taxes are a much more significant percentage of the final cost. And Norway has some of the highest reserves of oil in the world. So this leads to subsidies. Some countries subsidize the gas that is sold in their country. In other words, the government is absorbing some of the cost of the fuel in order to keep prices low. China could be doing this. I'm not sure. Next, you have the oil ownership issue. In most countries, the gov't/state/nation owns all of the mineral resources but this is not the case here in the US. In many cases the oil is produced and refined in conjunction with the big oil companies through deals made which typically gives part ownership to the oil company while the nation retains the majority of ownership. This is simply a matter of hiring trained professionals to get the job done. You can "hire" an oil company to produce oil the same as you would "hire" a mechanic to fix you car. In both cases this assumes you don't know how to do it yourself. However, many countries (Saudi Arabia, for example) have started through deals with oil companies but over time have trained their own and now control their own production. These countries can do whatever they want with their oil and if they own and produce it, they don't have to pay the market price. So, the cost of a gallon/liter of gas is essentially whatever it costs them to produce and refine the oil and transport and market the gas. It might only cost them $10 a barrel to produce the oil and that leads to significant savings in the final cost of gas since you don't have to pay the $69 open market price. Examples...Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, etc. The gas we buy is typically refined from the oil which is sold on the market for today's price of about $69. In the US, refining was 26% of the price per gallon in April. The refining price can vary depending upon your country's refining capabilities, not to mention the cost differences in refining sweet crude versus sour crude. In the case of the US, we do not have the refining capacity to keep up with demand so we import gas as well as oil. Many countries do this. So, in the end, you ask why China's gas is cheaper than Australia and I don't know the specifics for each country and therefore I cannot tell you specifically, but I believe the answer lies largely within the parameters of what I discussed above. My guess is that it is difference is in taxes and subsidies. This is definitely an oversimplification of the dynamics involved but I hope it gives a small idea as to some of what goes into the final cost at the pump. Randall
You guys got it easy! I just put £30 (that's GB pounds sterling) into mine (US$55, AUS$74, NZ$87) and the gauge went just past half way Our gas is expensive because about 80% of the price goes in tax to the government That's why the UK has such a good... um... hang on, I'll think of something! Skid
Yeah, I used to say gas was cheaper than milk, but now I'm not able to use that line!! I'm not overly worried about the price but wanted to bring it to the attention of all. I'm still going to put it in the back end of the Shel and I guess that why they keep slugging me. #0341
Fuel here in France runs $6.44 US a gallon at the moment! Most of the cost goes directly to taxes (as does more than half of my bloody paycheck). Yearning for the days of $3.00 a gallon prices. The price of fuel has really hit Europe hard in the past few years...I love it when I am back in the states' and it costs less than half! I don't blame the oil companies, rather the politicians for their taxation policies and lack of foresite towards promotion and development of workable alternatives. ...now if the French government would only re-invest the money in the roads, which are simply apalling. Steve GT350
We here in the United States are a little spoiled because of the relatively low prices of fuel. Compared to Europe and other parts of the world we are not doing so bad. The biggest part of the fuel cost here is the Governments taxation on fuel. Hell, the Government makes more on a gallon of fuel than the oil companys! The gas station owner is on the end of this food chain, he's not at blame over this. What can we do? Just pay the price. When the tank is empty, "filler up". Besides, putting gas in your Shelby is one of the cheaper things to do to it. shlby66