Petrol Prices

The price of a barrel of oil was greater in 2012 than it is now but we paid around £1.40/ltr for unleaded at its peak. Now it’s almost £2.00. What’s going on??

 

Oil prices go up, petrol prices go up. Oil prices go down, petrol prices stay up. The decades-old business practice of OPEC, the world's greediest oligopoly who have the rest of us over (ahem) 'a barrel'.

 

But if the petrol prices stay up when the oil price is down, surely that means the gouging is happening further down the chain than OPEC.

It means the refineries, shippers and retailers are the ones with a big fat margin.

 

Why is it where I live we’ve got a Tesco Express on a busy road selling petrol for £1.90 but a Tesco supermarket on a quieter road selling petrol for £1.70 odd?

****s. We’re looking to move soon and this is one of the reasons, commuting is ridiculous now. I’ll be getting a train to work instead.

 

The underlying Oil price isn't the only factor in determining the cost of petrol and even if it was it would need to lag somewhat.
Costs of refining, transportation, running the shops/pumps, taxation (although not much change here) etc also need to be considered.

Everything is more expensive at the moment due to Covid, Ukraine and the government's missmanagement of brexit & the economy.

I think there is a certain amount of profiteering going on as well.

 

boris: we are implementing a windfall tax
Shell/bp: sure no problem
Shell/bp: let’s raise pump prices to cover

 

Of course. Ultimately the only people that pay tax are us the population. Raise a purchase tax, company still needs to make a profit to run so they have to raise the purchase price. Likewise corporation tax, they'll still need to make the proffit to run and pay their investors.

Of course it then makes things more expensive to buy which means workers have to be paid more which raises a company's costs of employment and they have to raise their prices again to cover that off. It's a circle of inefficiency.

I've long promoted a complete scrapping of the taxation system, loading it all onto income above a living wage and then raising it higher on excessive wages.
Only taxing purchases for social/health engineering purposes (not revenue raising) like carbon emissions, cigarettes or alcohol.

A simplifield tax system is cheaper to run, so we can do more for our money and harder to avoid/evade so we can obtain more money.

Absolute vote loser though.

 

Remember it was a Labour idea to have the windfall tax, they mad sure to remind us the idea was stollen from them.
Don't blame Boris if it all goes wrong.
(I am not making a political statement, they all annoy me!)

 

Not sure I agree with a complete scrapping, but think the tax threshold should be above 40hours at the minimum wage rate. As you say this would simplify the tax system by taking many people out of the system and benefit those at the bottom end of earning.

 

Agreed. Theres no point paying a state pension or benefits then taxing it. Or taxing someone's income then topping it back up with benefits. All that does is cost time & admin and stresses out people who can not necessarily deal with it. It leaves the system open to abuse, missuse or people not gettign what then need or deserve.

 

Should be a piece of cake to implement then.

 

Good luck with that one...

 

As long as your commute to work isn't longer than 30 minutes, fully recommend getting an electric car

 

Pffft meistermobile will give that a run for it's money.

Electric is good for short regular runs for those that can charge it and afford one.

But the overall environmental credentials are not as green as many would have people think.

Ultimately we need to travel less.

 

I'll get my thigh highs on.

 

On the plus side noticeably less queueing to fill up and less traffic on the roads is making driving more enjoyable

 

That's true, but even if the overall carbon credentials were completely equal (which they aren't that close to being), the improvement in air quality alone (which kills 30-35k people a year in the UK, and cause a huge strain on the NHS) would make the transition to electric cars worth it.

I think the issue putting most people off is that the initial outlay is still high and infrastructure poor, battery capacity/technology is expected to keep rapidly improving over the next few years (trebling by 2030) and costs are expected to reduce by 25-50%. Solid state batteries could be a complete gamechanger., but are probably at least a decade away.

 

This is exactly what is putting me off. I’m still doubtful that my next car will be an electric one.
If I’m going up to a match at, say, Blackburn - whether or not I’m staying overnight - I don’t fancy the faff of researching where I might be able to plug the car in, especially if I need it to be a quick charge. For me charging points need to be as plentiful and of universal connection as petrol pumps are now. I don’t think this has been pushed nearly enough by the government, who perhaps still see it as a niche requirement.

 

Cost of buying an electric car capable of over 200 miles that isn't the size of a matchbox? £30K minimum.
Reliability of recharging away from home? Terrible
Cost of charging? Going up fast.

Result = not for me thanks.

 

This is the heart of the issue. I'm sure there are many more people who would buy an EV if the infrastructure was in place.

The EU just voted to stop sales of new gas cars by 2035. Coupled with that is an enormous infrastructure push and focus.

We should be doing that same investment too...but I suspect we won't.

 

Fewer

 

Due to the Tesco pay at pump limit I couldn’t even fill my car right up for the first time ever, and for that I got barely over 50 litres:

 

It's great for the Clubcard points balance though!

 

Exactly. Who wants to sit in traffic burning away fuel for no reason? Much better to pay twice as much and enjoy the freedom of the roads. I see no obvious flaws in this view.

 

Yes, the Nissan Micra does have an enormous tank for the size of car. Considered swapping ?

 

Micra? I had them down as a Fiat 500 owner with some of those eyelashes on the headlights.

 

It’s not that the charging points don’t work. (I hadn’t thought of that.) You say the number is accelerating and I’m sure that must be true, but for me it would be where to find them in a place I’m unfamiliar with. Would there be one where I’m staying? Do I have to find a garage nearby that has one? Would it be a rapid charger or one I have to plug into for a long time before my journey home? It all seems very uncertain at the moment.

 

Over here there are apps you can use to locate them, and even plan routes around them.

 

Interesting info. Thanks.