Is diesel more expensive than unledded everywhere? why?

G,Day Bjorn
Supply & demand usually says in the city ULP is cheaper as there are more cars & in WA at least diesel is usually cheaper in the country eg. more 4WDS,trucks & heavy equipment. Some remote desert areas have no ULP as there is a problem with petrol sniffing even in this enlightened age. Your choice depends on where you will be the most. Personally, diesel is the my choice due to low rev tourqe [except turbos] & I bought a 4WD not a sports car
Skinnydog

The old excuse used to be that the American winter meant that demand was high and so price is high at this time. China must now be factored in also. Global markets. Yes I know that it's more exe elsewhere, but if you really want to know why fuel is so expensive, look no further than your Federal Govt. The tax man has his hand in your pocket with every litre...excise, gst etc etc.
Then the Govt has the hide to say hey we have a big surplus that we'll use to get ourselves voted back in. And we do exactly that.
When I bought my first diesel it cost $1000 more than a petrol and at the end of my first year the difference was $0 because diesel was 3-4 cents cheaper than petrol. These days the only ones I can think of to say poor *&^)^)( to are the people who paid through the nose to get LPG conversions done.

As a truck owner and a 4 wheeler also diesel we also pay more for diesel than ulp
we get this delivered in bulk,the reason according to my fuel agent is that there is fierce competition in the petrol market more so than the diesel area therefor not as much discounting. We also get a fuel rebate of 18.5 cents per litre off(in the form of a refund) for fuel used on road and about the same for off road. We need to keep records of K.s, dates, and litres that go into each vehicle. This keeps the price of diesel down and is supposed to keep freight rates down. When we go to a bowser we expect to pay more for diesel. Remember it is still cheaper to run than petrol considering the fuel economy. We went across the Simpson a couple of years ago Diesel cruiser 119 litres landrover defender 72 litres so it depends on the vehicle & the driver.

Another thing to remember is the price of diesel has been artificially inflated by taxation.
As a purely manufacturing process, diesel is considerably cheaper to produce than petrol and yields per barrel of crude are higher for diesel than petrol.
Quite some years ago, talking diesel Gemini and VW Golf era, remember them? There was a huge swing to diesel powered passenger vehicles. At the time the then federal government upped the tax on diesel to cash in/discourage this development.
Hence one of the reasons "lindsay" is given an 18.5cpl rebate is because he's been given back that old artificial tax hike applied years ago to his diesel.

Geoff.

First law of marketing in fuels must be "charge what you know the consumers will pay" - not simply what it costs, plus margins. Aussies love their cars and will keep paying - the marketers have the trends on paper. Re diesel, my theory is that most of it is sold to enterprises - not private drivers - the suppliers know that they claim it all as a tax deduction - a lot of it is farm subsidised too.... so if most diesel users get it a lot cheaper in the end, the priced is "upped a bit" (see first law) and we low volume users get caught in the game.

Diesel was always cheaper in country SA until the introduction of the GST. We have little Johnny to thank for the hike in diesel prices.

I agree with Stephen C, John Howard heads a BIG TAX government. I am amazed that the media does not do feature stories on tax.

What is more surprising is that the community feels grateful for small tax cuts.

I believe the real reson why theres the price difference is largely our Aussie refineries make Petrol and Diesel is mostly imported therefore suffering more with the currency movements fuel company currency trading and futures contracts.
JR

Its still a no brainer for costs a diesal will cost around 5-7$ more to fill up but will use around $5 less fuel per hundred ks

I think once the refineries have recovered the cost of installing new equipment required to refine new low sulphur fuels we will see a reduction in the price at the bowser.
I believe the refineries actually receive a rebate from the govt. for installing the equipment ahead of the required date!!!

Cheers,
bobk

Some excellent points raised here. Consensus appears to be that the finger points at the fuel industry and the Govt.
Question: What lobby group pushes the interest of 4wders at the Federal level ? Where are the press releases and talkback people from the 4wders ?
Every man and his dog hates 4wds and bullbars (or so the spin doctors would have us believe). Obviously this isn't true, but thats the impression one gets from the media.
Ok I'm ignorant about 4wd politics and generally wish to remain so :))
But just sitting around watching us get screwed by everyone with an exe to grind or a "mandate" begs the question, who looks after our interests apart from the so called "motoring organisations" (who appear to be about as effective as an ashtray on a motorbike in these matters) ?

Once upon a time I can remember truckies had to pay what THEY considered an abhorrent road tax ( not sure whether it was WA State or Fed tax ). This was for maintainence of roads and I think calculated by a weight formula. Diesel fuel was much cheaper than petrol then. The tax burden was removed from the poor truckies shoulders and added to diesel fuel at the bowser to share the cost amongst the rest of us. For good measure, some years back, a WA State Govt. increased licence fees on FWD'S. Yes I do feel screwed.

Simple people!

Majority of people drive petrol cars. They are seen to be DISCOUNTING PETROL!! THE PEOPLE ARE HAPPY..

They then have to make their profits elsewhere. Whats left? LPG OR DIESEL!

Truckies dont give ableep, they get a kick back from Gov ...