Open question to non-US members about fuel costs

[blink32]

Does the oil market wreak as much havoc on fuel prices for you guys on non-US soil as it does here? Do you fuel prices change daily as they do here or at some other increment of time?

What I'm thinking about is places like the UK, Japan, etc, have always had high fuel prices compared to the US. We've been basically spoiled up until recently and we still aren't "that" high relatively speaking. In NJ at-least fuel stations are allowed to change their prices once in any 24hrs with the exception of those on the Turnpike that are allowed only once a week to correct. With speculators pushing the price of oil over $110/barrel during day trading this should cause fuel prices to rise well into the $3 up to $4 nationally (It's easy to find 87 octane gas in NJ under $3 still).

Do your prices also follow the ebb and flow of the oil market or do they remain fairly constant? Just some quick googling and I got these numbers, tell me if I'm way off.
Avg price of Unleaded : 106p/liter
3.785 liters to a US gallon
2 USD roughly to a British Pound
4.03 Pounds to a US gallon
$8.20 per gallon of unleaded

Currency conversion rates can flux, but roughly $8/gal, sheesh. No wonder 1.9L is considered a big engine over there

[Brit]

Don't mention the price of fuel !!
It change's on a daily basis over here and it only ever goes one way, up !
I've just worked out some figures from the price of a litre of diesel at my local fuel station and it works out to £5.22 a gallon (approx $10.51), most of which is tax, what a rip off.
Also in the budget yesterday, the chancellor annouced more tax hikes for 'enviromentally unfriendly' cars, read 4x4's etc.
There seems to be a real witch-hunt on over here if you own a 4x4. Unfortunately the motorist is an easy target for revenue raising and that sucks, big time..

[blink32]

Damn, so you guys are stuck with it too. I would have ASSumed that because the price was already so damn high you would be cushioned against it. But I made the fatal mistake of forgetting that most of the price of fuel are unchanging taxes.

The one good thing about the stinkhole of a state I live in is we have the lowest gas price in the country. But it is because we have so little taxes on the fuel.

[Brit]

You're right about the 1.9l as well, if you dare to own a vehicle with an engine bigger than a 1.3l you may as well grow horns and change your name to Lucifer

[Gray]

Calgary, Canada regular 87 octane gasoline prices as of today vary from 3.85 to 4.20 USD's/US galon, however there is no ethanol added to the local gasoline and I've never had any pinging problems using local regular but have had in the past with US 87 grade. Calgary is also the oil capitol of Canada so add anywhere from 10% to 30% on the pump price for other Canadian regions.

Interestingly Canada supplies about 10% of the US foreign purchased oil but due to local taxation Canadians have paid anywhere from 30% to 100% higher pump prices for some decades. I recall going on family trips from Canada through western states in the mid 1960's and my father mentioning how inexpensive it was to drive in the US at that time.

[Danguy426]

dang
so i guess i shouldn't be bee-yatchin about 3.55 for a gallon of premium.

[NVSteve]

I just have to add my $.02 to this conversation. I had been planning on flying to Adelaide (Oz), then taking a leasurely 3 week drive through the outback to Darwin. However, it isn't only the gas pricing that makes the pocketbook hurt, but also the absolute crap value of the dollar right now. Flight costs barely budge, but once you get overseas, that once mighty dollar is about as useless as the Peso of yore. So, comparing our price to "their" price is much less of an apples to apples comparison than it used to be, at least in better times.

[Gray]

dang, so i guess i shouldn't be bee-yatchin about 3.55 for a gallon of premium.

Haha, this is probably way beyond the scope of the board but as an outsider looking in maybe one of the reasons that you fellows in the US have low taxation rate inexpensive fuel costs is because of strong entities such as the Teamsters and other trucking unions who want to keep the trucking industry a viable employment endeavor.

Just from one perspective if taxation induced or other high fuel costs hit the US: high fuel costs = high trucking costs = higher consumer goods prices = pissed off consumers = folks willing to vote some money to more efficient transportation methods ie: super fast rail freight systems al la Europe or Japan = a bunch of out of work pissed off Teamster drivers.

http://www.teamster.org/08news/nr_080220_6.asp

Personally I'd never vote for a guy looking for a leadership office shining up to a union manager, and this attitude is fairly normal for a part of the world where most folks further south think we in Canada fly a red flag and embrace some socialist ideologies. To some outside of the US borders it probably looks like the Teamster tail wagging the political dog, but enjoy less than world fuel prices as long as you all can get it.

Of course there are other strong lobbies pushing for low cost US fuel as well, US automakers and their unions, US rail and ocean freight services, the airline industry and unions, etc...heck with all of the industry lobby bodies pushing for less than world priced fuel I'm surprised that individual consumers in the US pay anything at the pump.

YMMV

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[Gray]

In Southern Sudan, A Drive to Update The Image of Cows
Plans for Beef Industry Depend On Owners' Change of Heart

By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, December 8, 2007; A01


CHUKUDUM, Sudan -- Romeo Lomunyamoi sat on a rock in the late morning sun, his sizable herd of cattle lumbering around the yellow-green field before him.

In the next few days, he said, he had a momentous decision to make, one he had been turning over in his mind for weeks like a stressed corporate executive: whether to sell a cow.

"I am always very sorry to sell a cow," he said, explaining that in his entire life he has sold exactly two.

"Roads across southern Sudan, where they exist at all, are a muddy mess of gullies and rocks, rendering the idea of transporting 18-wheelers full of cattle a stretch of the imagination, especially considering the cost of gasoline.

In Juba (Sudan), where demand is high and supply scarce, a gallon costs $64."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 73_pf.html

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