Diesel Price
Author
Discussion

V2RAC

Original Poster:

463 posts

222 months

Tuesday 24th June 2008
quotequote all
Can anyone explain the mad price of diesel at the moment?

Twelve months ago it was on a par with unleaded and for the preceeding eons it was considerably cheaper, due, we were told that diesel required less refining than petrol.
Given that the governments duty per litre and the VAT rate is the same for both, and diesel is cheaper to produce, why is there now such a huge price disparity at the pumps.

Surely not the poor old oil companies making extra profit rolleyes

I am sure that this is crippling our transport industry, it's certainly not helping us in our small way.

groutie

60 posts

216 months

Tuesday 24th June 2008
quotequote all
Yeah, ads_green gave me this answer. It's all apparantly about the clean gear, low sulphur etc, they put in derv these days. Go figure. I'm sure if he gets on this thread he'll put it much better.
Makes you happy to pay £1.19 for 95 ron........doesn't it???

ringram

14,701 posts

271 months

Tuesday 24th June 2008
quotequote all
Ive also heard its because the developing world in the large uses far more diesel stuff, as in generators, tractors, cranes, trucks etc. Therefore you need to pay more than Mr China and his 1.5B population before Mr Shell will want to sell you the next tankful of his liquid gold. Especially when Mr China wants to buy his entire decades production smile

VXR_Daz

1,830 posts

243 months

Tuesday 24th June 2008
quotequote all
In simple terms it is supply and demand. Diesel refineries are at or near maximum capacity and in order to dampen demand they put the prices up.

Of course they could always just be maximising profits

V6 JDT

1,275 posts

245 months

Tuesday 24th June 2008
quotequote all
£1.38.3 here in Orkney yikes

DevilYellowCV8

745 posts

246 months

Tuesday 24th June 2008
quotequote all
There was a discussion on this on the radio (Jeremy Vine R2 I think) and an article in the Daily Mail. Both happened to mention that the demand for oil from countries like China, India etc had dropped slightly on this time last year.

The conclusion from both was that it is speculators on the oil markets who are driving up the cost of a barrell. Of course it's in the speculators interest, just like a financial stockbroker in the city, to force prices up to earn their commissions.

Edited by DevilYellowCV8 on Tuesday 24th June 20:58

V2RAC

Original Poster:

463 posts

222 months

Wednesday 25th June 2008
quotequote all
You would think that His Royal Brown-ness would have the decency to knock the extra VAT that he is coining, by default, off the fixed duty charge. rage

ringram

14,701 posts

271 months

Wednesday 25th June 2008
quotequote all
I dont particularly disagree with fuel tax. I consider it road user charging, which if it makes the roads easier to trave the more the merrier.

What is communist is income and corporate tax levied to pay for government employed idiots. Lets not forget all the members free housing paid for by tax payers, free household goods from John Lewis etc. Sack them all and outsource most government functions!

ads_green

838 posts

255 months

Wednesday 25th June 2008
quotequote all
groutie said:
Yeah, ads_green gave me this answer. It's all apparantly about the clean gear, low sulphur etc, they put in derv these days. Go figure. I'm sure if he gets on this thread he'll put it much better.
Makes you happy to pay £1.19 for 95 ron........doesn't it???


yep - in short
government give tax breaks to low emmission diesel.
now cost effective to make so petro chem producer make it (bearing in mind it's only used in cars so limited market)
government take away tax breaks to low emmission diesel.
producers now say "why make this expensive stuff when we make more money on the old stuff"
producers make less low sulphur diesel
people using more diesel cars
hence higher demand + lower supply = higher prices.

It's no different than LPG - why spend 3k on a conversion when the government said they will take away the tax breaks?