For The Love Of Port

I paid $4.20 a gallon today. That is 11 cents above a week ago. I've heard reports that it costs the equivalent of $8 per gallon in the UK and has exceeded $9 a gallon in other EU countries. Amazing times!

I am concerned that now that the oil companies have raised the bar, what incentive will they have to ever lower the price below $3.50 again, no less what we used to think of as "ridiculously expensive" ... at $3 per gallon, merely a year or so ago?

Maybe some oil exec's kids have to get kidnapped or something?

Good will is not going to lower the prices, and stockholders are just loving it.

I say buy Exxon stock, so at least you getting a little something back each time the price rises...

Here indeed it is $ 9 a gallon. I say, get used to it, oil demands are increasing since China and India are booming.I dont have a car, but we all suffer from these prices. Planes, trains, ships and trucks. In the end its us consumers who pay.

Yeah, the last time I filled up my tank it cost me $35!!!

Helps that the tank is only 8.7 gallons.

Roy has seen my new little toy... sadly, the 2008 smart car from Daimler does not come in "Port" color. So mine is black with a silver safety cell. So far I'm getting about 43 mpg.

These gas prices are crazy. Talking to a friend who has worked in the oil industry for almost 30 years and he said there is no reason for it to be this high. Once we get that lame duck President of ours out of office hopefully things will get better :devil:

This is a great link that explains the history of oil prices...worth the read.

http://www.wtrg.com/prices.htm

Yeah, but I think EU prices are still comparatively moderate compared to where they were a few years ago. 1.05/ltr vs. 1.55 now. So only a 50% increase. Contrast with 100% some other places.

Yeah, but the Euro is also at $1.55 now vs as low as $0.90 not so long ago, so relative to our prices they've well more than doubled.

Yeah, but the Euro is also at $1.55 now

The positive side is that i get good deals if i order port from the former UK and dutch colonies

I already report to our studio head in Dublin, so I think I should be receiving an Irish scale salary and get paid in Euros, don't you? That way my trips to Berry Bros. & Rudd in Dublin wouldn't come at such a high (relative) price!

Wait, am I supposed to be working when they send me over there? I thought they were sending me over to import Port and Irish Whiskey!

Glenn E. wrote:Yeah, the last time I filled up my tank it cost me $35!!!

I filled my tank 2 days ago and it cost £77 ($144) for 10 gallons :help:

I am expecting delivery of my new company car soon which has a 15 gallon tank so each trip to the filling station will cost £100+ :x

Derek

Derek T. wrote:I filled my tank 2 days ago and it cost £77 ($144) for 10 gallons :help:

I assume those are Imperial gallons, but even so that's pretty outrageous!

Prices here in Edmonton have jumped to $1.28/Litre. This seems cheap compared to $1.38 elsewhere in the country and $1.55 in Europe, but considering I can SPIT on two oil refineries from my backyard (or at least as I drive or cycle past them on my way to work) I have always felt we should be paying less here in the place where gas is made... When compared to $4.30/gallon that Roy is paying, $4.86 per US Gallon is what I am paying I(1.28 x 3.8 [liters per gallon]). It still makes NO sense to me that I would be paying more for gas produced in my own backyard than the same gas that we ship down through the pipelines the run underground about 100 feet from my property to the US. It would be like the Portuguese paying the outrageous prices I pay for PORT here in Canada, for stuff made in THEIR backyards.

Give a brother a break will ya "Big Oil" ?!?!?

Just watched a news report on the crude oil big price hike over the past couple of days. The way this is going we will hit £1.50 ($3) per litre for diesel within a month or two

Derek

Todd Pettinger wrote:It still makes NO sense to me that I would be paying more for gas produced in my own backyard than the same gas that we ship down through the pipelines the run underground about 100 feet from my property to the US. It would be like the Portuguese paying the outrageous prices I pay for PORT here in Canada, for stuff made in THEIR backyards.

That's the taxes. As it turns out, the price of gas worldwide is fairly flat if you ignore taxes.

Federal tax on a gallon of gas in the US is something ridiculously low like $0.18. States then add a bit more, which explains the variance by state here. My parents pay less for a gallon of gas in Missouri than my brother did in Houston, Texas. That's because Missouri has basically no state tax on gasoline, while Texas does. For all I know, Houston may have a municipal tax on gas as well. Washington's state tax on gas is relatively high for the US, but nothing compared to what the poor Europeans are paying.

In the EU you pay the equivalent of over $1.00 per liter in taxes. I don't know what Canadian taxes are like, but I would be very surprised if that's not the cause of the difference between what you're paying and what we're paying.

The most irritating aspect of this, especially in the UK, is that the bulk of the pump price is tax. It is also worth noting that the production process, the marketing and delivery don't cost any more today than they did 6 months ago. I don't know the real numbers (hopefully someone here does) but I wouldn't be surprised if the crude oil price only accounts for 10-20% of the cost of getting the stuff from under the ground/sea to the pump. All this means is that all the middle men, including the tax man, are simply taking advantage of a situation that even in isolation would be damaging. The government could easily adjust the % charged per litre and get back to the same level of revenue they had a few months ago with the result that we would save 20-30p per litre.

:wall:

Glenn E. wrote:In the EU you pay the equivalent of over $1.00 per liter in taxes. I don't know what Canadian taxes are like, but I would be very surprised if that's not the cause of the difference between what you're paying and what we're paying.

Hmm, they save the REALLY high taxes for alcohol, although technically, refined gas is just that - a variant of an alcohol

Port seems to be be taxed higher than anything else, save Bordeaux and Burgandy!

It's interesting to see a lot less people driving around my area the past couple of weeks. The freeways are actually free-moving on the weekends and I hardly see any motorhomes. I'm curious to see how much reduced driving people do and what effect that will have. As the less we drive, the less gas we use, and the larger the stock piles the refineries end up with.

Andy,

That is a nice thought, however whatever we don't buy/use that MIGHT cause a suplus, will wind up being used instead in Asia where demand grows unabated.


Derek wrote:

All this means is that all the middle men, including the tax man, are simply taking advantage of a situation that even in isolation would be damaging.

True, that is the same reason that we have a country called America. Tea, gas ... it is all the same.

Just when we are all being told that we need to pay more for fuel for our cars because of demand for oil from emerging nations and unrest in the middle east the good old Brit gas (the type that you cook with) and electricity suppliers have started using the same reasons to talk about a potential 40% price increase.

This is remarkable because there is absolutely no connection whatsoever between the cost of oil and the cost of these energy sources in the UK. The gas we use is produced from our own sources in the North Sea off the east coast of Scotland and all of our elecricity is produced locally from coal, nuclear, hyrdo or wind powered sources. Bas****ds. :wall: