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How much is petrol in the UK these days? Here in the US everybody is whining because it is now about $2.20/gal (3.8L). I must be getting Americanized because I'm whining too.
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It varies but an average at the moment seems to be around 83p litre.I dont think you have any room to complain as it is cheaper where you are.I have to admitt I would love to be there.beats uk anytime.Bearing in mind the uk gallon is more than u/s.Uk gallon is 4.5litre
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.... which equates to £1.45 per litre.
I can't seem to get historical oil price data but it'd be interesting to see how oil prices, in pounds, compare with the past, given the relative strength of the pound against the dollar.
(Of course oil companies will have hedged their currencies so we will get a higher percentage increase in the tax-free component of petrol than this would suggest, but even allowing for that, it'd be worth seeing what the true price movements are, or whether petrol price increases are being obscured by taxation and offsetting currency movements.)
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Where do you get £1.45 per litre from DavidHM?
Assuming the £ is roughly equivalent to $1.75, then the $2.20 per US gallon equates to £1.25 per US gallon. This works out at 32p per litre (£1.25/3.8 litres)
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I stupidly paid .97p a litre at watford gap services the other day. If I had bothered to look at thr price before filling I would have risked going somewhere else.
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Trouble in the Middle East = Higher oil prices = Higher petrol and diesel prices = Higher inflation = Higher interest rates = Higher mortgage repayments => Repossessions etc
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It's not only oil prices which influence repossessions! Or maybe I was reading your mind wrongly... :-)
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So it's still nearly three times as dear here as in the US. A news report today stated that the days of cheap fuel are at an end for America. If so, what price as those big V8, 20 mpg gas-guzzlers in the near future?
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>>20 mpg<< I thought that was good for a V8
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Oh we went through all that in 1973 when the relative oil price surged far higher. That gave birth to those rickety ghastly abortions like the Dodge Aries K series, the Mercury Sable, Ford Tempo etc.
It all faded away, as will this. As dependent as we are on oil supplies, so are the countries that supply it. Stop worrying.
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>>Stop worrying<<
as I recall petrol tax was going to be increased were it not the fact election just round the corner(mention was bringing the price up to £5 gallon)I gather the idea is still there someone correct me if wrong?
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So far the rising petrol prices have had little influence on the American public and their love for oilwell emptying SUVs. I dont get it, you still see single occupants driving the expedition/excursion/suburban/yukon to the hairdressers. Still with the direction prices are headed, attitudes are starting to change.
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Certain oil companies having to reduce the level of their reserves time and time again can't be helping the market gain its feet.
I agree that this is a blip, but the main difference being that we are probably at the peak of the oil supply ( unless major new discoveries are found ). The real test will be when oil prices eventually rise much faster than incomes. This is at least a generation away yet.
I remember the skinny tyres on some of the european "ecomony" cars - never again.
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It's not only oil prices which influence repossessions! Or maybe I was reading your mind wrongly... :-)
Not just oil prices but at the moment they have a disproportionately large effect on inflation. The cost of food, clothes, etc are hardly rising. Oil prices and house prices seem to be main culprits and the recent rate rises are due to these two reasons. If inflation goes up, those people who are mortgaged up to the hilt will start to worry about repayments. The crash at the end of the late 80s and beginning of the 90s has been forgotten by many.
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Growler's hit the nail on the head. The supplying countries need to sell just as much as we need to buy so this should just be a blip. This will only fall over if a country like Saudi falls apart and a fundamentalist regime who are happy to go back to the stone age take power, like Afghanistan under the Taliban. Then, I think, the West would have no option but to intervene militarily or see our way of life change fundamentally. Pony and trap anyone?
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Growler's hit the nail on the head. The supplying countries need to sell just as much as we need to buy so this should just be a blip. This will only fall over if a country like Saudi falls apart and a fundamentalist regime who are happy to go back to the stone age take power, like Afghanistan under the Taliban. Then, I think, the West would have no option but to intervene militarily or see our way of life change fundamentally. Pony and trap anyone?
Nah, I'll keep me bike - 9-year-old 21-speed Trek with front Rock Shox (do they still make those?) - hasn't let me down yet) ;-)
Nick and Growler are exactly right. These people WANT to destabilise the market, so the best message to send them is to carry on as normal, instead of getting jittery and sending the price through the roof.
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Nah, I'll keep me bike - 9-year-old 21-speed Trek with front Rock Shox (do they still make those?) - hasn't let me down yet) ;-)
Yup, they still make them and they still can't spell.
Prefer PACE forks myself, all that lovely lightweight carbon fibre :::drool:::
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Nick's got it, after Iraq, KSA?
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Nick
The fall of Saudi is not unlikely (not 'alf). Even the Americans have noticed and have established a huge military presence in an adjacent state. No, surely they can't have been thinking ahead for once? Perhaps it will all be neat and tidy -- new regime in Iraq decides it's time for US military to leave; US military suddenly needs to deal with Saudi -- but I doubt it. Interesting point made on Radio 4 this morning: it is Saudi that provides most of the flexbility in the global oil-supply system.
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Surely, it won't be tenable (never mind morally acceptable) to intervene militarily, if the consent of the occupied is not given. Transition of KSA to a US colony? Not the most promising approach. US record in guerilla wars is not great - but then neither is the UK's.
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KSA has traditionally been the "swing-producer", i.e. the buffer supplier which makes up the shortfalls. Always has been since 1973. Simple reason: the Sauds are controllable, the rest less so, especially on the other side of the water thereabouts. It makes sense to make sure that the Eastern Province oilfields are under control and that must be a key strategic objective both in the White House and in the Poodle House at No. 10 Downing St.
But to anyone who has been there, the infrastructure in the EP is huge. A few loonies running amuck aren't going to change things. This is not about physical impact on infrastructure but about playing to the media and instilling fear and trepidation.
Which is what terrorism is all about. And can't you just imagine those seat warming book keepers in gov't rubbing their grubby little hands and working out how they can exploit this to add a bit more tax to the price.
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Oops, £1.45 per gallon... that still sounds astonishingly cheap!
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Chaps and Chappesses; Thrilling as it is to read your views on the militaristic intentions of our transatlantic cousins, this isn\'t the place.
By all means discuss petrol costs. By all means discuss the impact of taxation. You are positively welcome to consider the various factors that will impact on your day to day living but this isn\'t the Guardian forum (where such discussions are frequently held with a great deal of vigour).
Please don\'t let this one slide into a quasi-political thread on the US v. OPEC.
It\'s a fine line I know, as these things are intrincically linked, but the line has been crossed. Please return to your point of departure.....
Cheers for your understanding,
No Dosh
Backroom Moderator
mailto:moderators@honestjohn.co.uk
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All the complex problems in the middle east surely this would be an opportunity to invest in Nigeria's Oil & help develop parts of Africa? Also making the Saudi's sort out there & other middle eastern countries problems & making them drop there prices after a few years of buying from Nigeria or Russia for that matter, the Saudi's & others would be more than eager to keep a lid on it i would have thought. Plus we would be halfway to hepling Nigeria's & surrounding countries monetery problems
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If the millions that the EU pours into suuporting the growing of unsmokeable tobacco and even more into wine lakes that get turned into vinegar and industrial alcohol went into bio-fuels then we wouldn't be so concerned over the A-rabs.
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biofuels sound tempting, but have you ever considered how much land would be required to make any significant dent in the requirement for fossil fuels?
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Yes, there is info on the internet that shows how one reasonably small desert in the USA could provide all of it's transport fuel if irrigated and crops grown, while this would have an environmental impact would it be greater than that of the fossil fuel system?
There are also people developing high-rise algae towers which will provide oil.
What about all the set-aside fallow land which farmers get subsidies from the EU for? There is still huge amounts of old frying oil disposed of every year, that's like pouring money down the drain.
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biofuels sound tempting, but have you ever considered how much land would be required to make any significant dent in the requirement for fossil fuels? >>
What I am saying is that land and subsidies are being mis-used at the moment.
And synthetic fuel is another option.
The Germans ran a heck of a lot of their war effort on synthetic fuel and the Allies put a lot of effort in putting their plants out of action.
The Luftwaffe was largely neutralised towards the end of the war by lack of fuel as much as anything else and ended the war with total stocks of only 1,500 tons.
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Filled up with Caltex Silver (93 RON) last night and it's P24.95/liter X 4.5 /102.29 = +/- £1.10 a gallon. So we're laughing on the face of it in the Land of Sun & Fun.
BUT that's more than a 20% increase this year. AND in local terms the government faces a major problem when the very powerful public transport unions get up in arms about the slightest increase in fuel costs while being constrained from applying fare hikes (politically undesirable for a gov't elected on a platform among other things of helping the poor. With a newly elected President (well we think so, they are still counting 23 days after the event!) public disturbances are not what Gloria needs. There's enough simmering discontent anyway that a member of the wealthy elite should remain in power and a very restless Army plus a lot of old retired Generals who have not much else to do when they get bored of playing golf.....
Thus there will be major pressure on the oil companies to roll back or suspend price increases.
Well, I've watched so many bungled coup attempts on Channel 9 over the years, it's all good entertainment.........
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