h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Now €0.832

It was reported this week that crude was selling for less than $50 a barrel.

So, some more falls in the price at the pump are to be expected as a result of the downward turn in the futures market. OPEC will start to cut production soon, (my guess), in order to bolster or boost the price. It's in their interests to do so.

I calculate a low of €0.786 before a steady, but protracted, climb to nearer €0.90 just before Xmas or the new year when rates are traditionally higher.

I think we are seeing pump rates at almost the lowest levels we will see in a while, albeit that they will fall a few cents more, before climbing.

It's time to fill up!

I did a small celebratory in my car yesterday when I put £20 worth in. At 89.9p this will last me considerable longer than it has been doing of late!

Well, I was completely wrong with my assumption of pump price falls and also with the state of the futures market.

The local press here in Cyprus are reporting that the government are currently looking into the pump price, suggesting that the retailers are charging too much compared to the current crude price.

Of course, the retailers and the petroleum importers claim that pump prices reflect their purchase costs of 3 months ago and that there may be some 'movement' when new deliveries are received in the months ahead.

The government here are pushing for a reduction of between €0.06 - €0.08 per litre within the next few days. YES, that's up to 8 cents a litre, which will bring the current cost to potentially €0.75 per litre for unleaded 95. Given the current (worsening) Euro to Sterling exchange rate that equates to £0.6375 GBP per litre.

The Cyprus government are currently posturing with the fuel companies and threatening to impose a long standing law that enforces a 'price fix' if the fuel companies refuse to move prices downward. Effectively the law allows the government to dictate a 'market' price, which the retailers have to abide by (and charge at the pump) for at least 3 months. Having said that, the government are reported to be reluctant to act just now, in case the crude price drops even further, when their decision will artificially hold the pump price higher than it should actually be.

Interesting times ahead.

Filled my car up yesterday at ASDA, for an amazing 88.9 p per litre. That meant I could fill teh tank for £30, as opposed to the £36, 37, 38 pattern I'd been getting accustomed to.

Petrol is far too cheap. And so are other forms of non-renewable energy.

The problem is that the cost should have three elements rather than two.

As it is there is the cost of bringing it to the pump / pipe / socket / etc, including cost of production and producers and retailers profits. And the cost of taxes.

The third cost seems to me to be unquantifiable. The cost to environment and the social costs (which are rarely borne by us in the west).

We have become used to cheap energy and find it hard to accept when it rises.

And yes, I'm a driver and I fly and leave my TV on standby too.

PP

contradict yourself a bit there dont you

How do I contradict myself?

I have never complained about the price (in £s) of energy = however that price is made up.

I am aware of the price of what I do and am prepared to pay the bill.

(BTW, if I leave the TV on standby, it's an oversight and not a Clarksonesque smack in the face for the environment)

My energy use and awareness is much the same as anybody else's - I'm just not in denial about the link between cost and price.

PP

€0.775 today. With a € to £ exchange rate of 0.8936 that makes it GBP £0.6925 per litre for unleaded 95.

If I foolishly apply the exchange rate I was getting when I moved here 18 months ago, that would make it GBP £0.5166 per litre.

Hmmm, a staggering 87p a litre now, i wonder if this is going to go down more?

well, 2 weeks ago i was enjoying the Shelle( mis spelt due to copytight laws) petrol at 82p, now petrol is going up. This isnt what i and others had expected, seems the government and garages and taking the *"$"£%£%^@ again

what can i say, the cheapest is now 96.99p a litre, and the most expensive being 99.99p a litre.

when will it end!

It's shot up here over the last couple of weeks - having been down to 1.21 Euros, it's as high ast 1.34 Euros now.

petrol now, at tescos is £1.04p

In Florida, a US gallon of gasoline currently costs an average of $2.60.

Since a dollar today converts to 0.6068 British pounds, that is 1.578 pounds per US gallon.

There are 3.785 liters in a US gallon, so that would be about 42 pence a liter, if my math is correct.

The best price I can remember was 10 cents a gallon back in early 1965.

wow, thats cheap, im moving to america lol. Petrol is now £1.06p thats merrko, mis-spelt for copyright purposes.

2010 update: petrol is creeping up again, im local cheapest is now £1.14.9 per litre. I dont' think that this time it will go down again....

When it's cheaper and at least nearly as convenient to catch a bus to work I will, instead I'm going to have to put my budget for commuting up to £25 a week...

I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't almost all tax. Maybe if the fuel tax went straight into funding public transport???

But that would be a completely self defeating tax. As public transport improves more people move to public transport thus reducing the amount of money available for funding public transport.

And like it or not, tax IS necessary. It funds all sorts of things that we like (health, education, etc) and things that we don't like (war and er, well perhaps there will be folks out there who DO like war). However, the bottom line is that it costs unimaginable amounts of money to run a country and the government have no money of their own, so they have to use ours. So what do you want to pay tax on? The answer can't always be that we want someone else to pay tax for us.

PP

in kent where i live the price of petrol £116.9



what about road tax they rise 45 billion a year
but they don't spend that on how roads

I pay plenty of taxes on pretty much everything including VAT until fairly recently on sanitary products. Nice.

My suggestion about public transport is that theoretically you would eventually have a fantastic public transport infrastructure that works, is reasonably convenient (hey, I dont ask for miracles. I get it, we wont all get a taxi service door to door for free!) and is reliable. At the moment public transport for me and many others is simply not a realistic option. The unreliable bus service to get the roughly three miles (of nasty hills and I'm sorry, I'm not the hill-cycling type) to work involves a double bus ride into and back out of the city centre covering around nine miles and an hour and a quarter of my day each way. And costing over £4 a day. If a realistic transport system was in place, it could potentially come to cover itself, the tax on fuel and private vehicles in a city area could become higher if necessary until it becomes the norm that everybody uses public transport for commuting and other similar trips.

I'm working on the basis that it costs more to change an old system than it does to maintain a current one of course and I've done no research, however pricing motorists out of the market without giving them an alternative DOESN'T work and isn't fair. We just end up with less money to spend on things like bills, food, rent... I can see a system where roads for private vehicles are relatively few and therefore cost less to maintain, that private vehicles become fewer therefore costing less to police and administrate... It's not entirely pie in the sky! But then I think drivers should have to take a regular test (a driver's MOT if you like) every three years to show they understand and are aware enough of what they should be doing to be allowed to manouver a lethal weapon around members of the public, I'm a bit rebellious like that ...