Ten cheapest countries for buying petrol

[craigjm]

UK is the third most expensive in the world (be glad you don't live in Norway)

But in Turkmenistan you get 120 litres FREE each month!

[E31Shrew]

What about the rest of Europe?


Country Unleaded 95 petrol price per litre in euros July 2011 Diesel price per litre in euros July 2011
Austria 1.34 1.26
Belgium 1.42 1.27
Czech Rep1.32 1.32
Denmark 1.62 1.47
Estonia 1.26 1.32
Finland 1.60 1.35
France 1.48 1.30
Germany 1.54 1.43
Greece 1.62 1.42
Hungary 1.44 1.43
Ireland 1.44 1.34
Italy 1.59 1.47
Latvia 1.28 1.24
Lithuania 1.30 1.20
Luxembourg 1.28 1.15
Netherlands 1.57 1.27
Norway 1.82 1.72
Poland 1.29 1.29
Portugal 1.56 1.38
Slovakia 1.46 1.34
Slovenia 1.25 1.26
Spain 1.33 1.26
Sweden 1.47 1.48
Switzerland 1.35 1.43
United Kingdom 1.47 1.52

[Shotgun Rider]

E31Shrew said:

What about the rest of Europe?


Country Unleaded 95 petrol price per litre in euros July 2011 Diesel price per litre in euros July 2011
Austria 1.34 1.26
Belgium 1.42 1.27
Czech Rep1.32 1.32
Denmark 1.62 1.47
Estonia 1.26 1.32
Finland 1.60 1.35
France 1.48 1.30
Germany 1.54 1.43
Greece 1.62 1.42
Hungary 1.44 1.43
Ireland 1.44 1.34
Italy 1.59 1.47
Latvia 1.28 1.24
Lithuania 1.30 1.20
Luxembourg 1.28 1.15
Netherlands 1.57 1.27
Norway 1.82 1.72
Poland 1.29 1.29
Portugal 1.56 1.38
Slovakia 1.46 1.34
Slovenia 1.25 1.26
Spain 1.33 1.26
Sweden 1.47 1.48
Switzerland 1.35 1.43
United Kingdom 1.47 1.52

Where did those prices come from? I live in rural West Wales, far from the cheapest area in the country and I've never seen prices that high. Except for Pont Abraham services on the end of the M4 possibly!

[BlueMR2]

120 litres of free vpower a month would make the road tax cost more bearable.

[mike9009]

Shotgun Rider said:

Where did those prices come from? I live in rural West Wales, far from the cheapest area in the country and I've never seen prices that high. Except for Pont Abraham services on the end of the M4 possibly!

Probably because th e prices are in euros and not sterling?

[to3m]

You can get an idea of what oil prices these would imply using Google. For example, google "20 us cents per litre in us dollars per barrel" - the answer is $27.26/barrel. Since the actual price of oil is more like $100/barrel, the cost of this kind of subsidy - either in terms of actual money forked out, or income foregone - will be immense. I wonder how long they'll be able to keep it up? I wonder why they do it in the first place?

The poster makes these places sound nice. Charitable governments, doing the right thing by their citizens by sharing the oil wealth. I'm sure the people that live there are dead grateful for the freedom their kind rulers have given them, the freedom to drive where they like without being so rudely shafted by international oil companies, and global capitalism, or whatever.

Strangely enough, I would still rather live in the UK or Norway.

EDIT: while I am moaning about this poster, I also spotted that the claimed Libyan annual production is off. 41 billion barrels is their reserves, rather than their annual production. Global annual production is less than 41 billion barrels. (It's something more like 32 billion or so.)

Edited by to3m on Sunday 28th August 01:29

[airportparking]

It's about 1 ryal in qatar and you get 6 ryals for a quid so there ya go!

[Perd Hapley]

Bit of a pisser that I wouldn't want to live in any of those countries.

[shanes]

Andorra is 1.17 euro for 98

Jakarta Indonesia , 69 euro cents per liter

[CraigyMc]

to3m said:

You can get an idea of what oil prices these would imply using Google. For example, google "20 us cents per litre in us dollars per barrel" - the answer is $27.26/barrel. Since the actual price of oil is more like $100/barrel, the cost of this kind of subsidy - either in terms of actual money forked out, or income foregone - will be immense. I wonder how long they'll be able to keep it up? I wonder why they do it in the first place?

There's a correlation between economic growth and the use of fuels in an economy.

Given that the sorts of places which are subsidising fuel are:

• oil producing
• often under-developed economically, by western standards
• often don't have much diversity in their economy
• may not be able to sell all their production freely on the world market
• not using all that much oil today anyway

... it may make sense for these places to provide this sort of subsidy today, and until something above changes.

I just looked up todays crude barrel price. One Barrel of brent crude (42 US gal, which is about 159 litres) is $111.90; this works out to about 70 US cents per litre of crude.

Probably also important to remember that the countries in question aren't actually paying market prices for this oil - they are producing it, so there's an opportunity cost for them rather than a fiscal/forex one.

Countries in OPEC are under an obligation to sell at a specific price, and to only provide a specific amount for export. This alone would give an unsaleable surplus of fuel, which could be practically "given away".

The current members of opec?
Algeria
Angola
Ecuador
Iran
Iraq
Kuwait
Libya
Nigeria
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
UAE
Venezuela

Jakarta was mentioned - Indonesia was in OPEC until 2008, and is still letting fuel prices normalise up to market prices.

OP could do worse than to read this wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_and_diesel_u...

C

Edited by CraigyMc on Sunday 28th August 05:36

[CraigyMc]

craigjm said:

UK is the third most expensive in the world (be glad you don't live in Norway)

According to this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_and_diesel_u... It's 17th in the world, with lower prices than a lot of Europe.

[Mr2Mike]

That is oe of the most ridiculously biased bits of propaganda I've seen in a while. Ok petrol certainly isn't cheap, but whoever made that poster simply picked all the cheapest places in the world instead of comparing like with like.

[thinfourth2]

So Norway the petrol is £1.64 a ltr of that £1.64.

£1.64 is road tax and an additional 10p of CO2 tax so before tax petrol in Norway is -10p a ltr

[Fraser Z4]

What's the quality of the fuel like in these countries where it's very cheap? Pretty poor i'd imagine? I know it's fairly expensive over here but I think the quality of our fuel is probably somewhere near the top with 95 Ron as standard - isn't the standard fuel over in the US only around 90 Ron? Saying that though I'm not sure what difference that actually makes to the performance of a modern relatively high performance mainstream engine (such as the BMW N52 or VW TFSI's - common motors with a bit of go).

[Petrolhead_Rich]

craigjm said:

UK is the third most expensive in the world (be glad you don't live in Norway)

But in Turkmenistan you get 120 litres FREE each month!

Might move to Tripoli, close to Europe, Cheap fuel I also heard there is a big house being sold cheap, minor damage, but nothing a lick of paint won't fix I'm sure!

[Chicane-UK]

Would I want to live in any of those other countries listed where fuel is much cheaper than it is in the UK? Eeeerrr... no.

Tripoli? 9p a litre fuel, but a great chance of being executed by the remaining soldiers of Colonel Gadaffi's army, where they're virtually on the edge of a humanitarian crisis? Where do I sign up!

[CraigyMc]

Fraser Z4 said:

What's the quality of the fuel like in these countries where it's very cheap? Pretty poor i'd imagine? I know it's fairly expensive over here but I think the quality of our fuel is probably somewhere near the top with 95 Ron as standard

The most extreme example of this subsidy is probably Venezuela.
The place is full of oil, and they have refineries that are just as good as ours (they export huge amounts, they have to meet standards).
Since fuel is so cheap, there's really not much incentive to run anything other than high octane fuel. The price difference is extremely small - you can fill a VW golf for about £1 or so.

Fraser Z4 said:

- isn't the standard fuel over in the US only around 90 Ron? Saying that though I'm not sure what difference that actually makes to the performance of a modern relatively high performance mainstream engine (such as the BMW N52 or VW TFSI's - common motors with a bit of go).

The comment about fuel octane/grade in the USA you make is misguided to a large extent, but it's a common misconception. Comparing the number on the pump in the USA versus the UK is an apples and pears comparison.

Octane levels can be measured in two ways, and reported in a varying number of ways:

• RON (Research octane number) - run fuel in a test engine under various conditions, report knock properties.
• MON (Motor Octane Number) - run fuel in another test engine under various conditions, report knock properties.
• AKI (a calculated value, taking both MON and RON into account.

While you can't work out one number from the other, RON routinely reports approximately a 10% higher number than MON. Taken another way, MON is a "harder test" - it includes things like variable spark timing, which is a more realistic condition these days. RON was probably more a realistic test 50 years ago.

In Europe, the RON number is the one displayed on the pump (in the UK, this is usually 95 for "regular" and 97/98/99 for Premium/Super/Optimax/Ultimate depending on the company/brand). As an aside, there are countries in Europe where you can find higher octane fuel on general sale - in Germany you can buy 102 octane fuel in a lot of fuel stations, for example - I've done it myself, through ARAL (a German equivalent of BP).

In the USA, Canada, and various other countries, the RON is not the number advertised. Instead, it's the AKI value - remember that this number includes the MON, so it will always be lower. The actual fuel itself could be the same as or higher octane as on sale in the UK) - the pumps can dispense anything from about 91RON up to 98RON (the equivalent in the AKI scale will be shown)

It's easy enough in places like California, and New England to find 94AKI (98RON).

C

[1878]

UK Fuel In More Expensive Than Carefully Selected Third World Locations Shocker! Readallabahtit!

[E31Shrew]

Mr2Mike said:

That is oe of the most ridiculously biased bits of propaganda I've seen in a while. Ok petrol certainly isn't cheap, but whoever made that poster simply picked all the cheapest places in the world instead of comparing like with like.

Agreed!

[Shotgun Rider]

mike9009 said:

Probably because th e prices are in euros and not sterling?

Ah yes, that'll teach me for not reading posts properly!