Diesel pricing

Do you like to talk about this?

That's just one of the privileges when you own a diesel :)))

Anyone feel free to correct me but I thought that Australia set it's diesel prices in line with Thailand. I have no idea why, but diesel is expensive there due to low usage.

None of it makes sense to me for the obvious reasons of diesel needing less refining etc etc. Australia is unique among most countries in the world, especially country areas, due to long distances between places and the only way to get there is using diesel powered vehicles where high prices hits the pocket.

Did you know that coal mines in Queensland get multimillion dollar subsidies for their diesel usage from the government? The coal companies don't need that money, maybe it could be put to better use developing renewable biodiesels obtained from non-food crops?

Barnesy

Asians don't want petrol, we compete with them on the Singapore market (Tapis) for the heavy stuff....not enough supply ,too much demand....silverback

A few weeks ago there was a segment on one of the current affairs program about this issue. The claim was that Refineries make their money out of diesel not petrol - it was stated the refinery gross margin on diesel is about 30 cents a litre and only 5 cents a litre for petrol as diesel is a lot cheaper to refine.
It never used to be like this - in the early 1980's we bought a gemini diesel and it was consistently cheaper than petrol at that time - about $19 to fill up the Gemini I recall.

I n Toowoomba yesterday there was 23 cents, yes 23 cents, difference between ULP and diesel. Tell me we're not being ripped off.
When the differenc was less than that I had a go at our local member about it and after fighting my way through the bulldust he reckons that its not that diesel is too dear its that petrol is so cheap and he was a minister in the previous govt.
We plan on doing a 15000km trip this year in my Patrol ute towing a tandem caravan, may take us longer than we thought.
I hate being treated as a fool.
Geoff

Glad I have the Triton

Point to point Forbes NSW to Burwood Vic via Echuca and some running around Echuca Deniliquin. 859 Kilomteres average fuel consumption 8.1 litres /100 ks. Average speed 90 kmh

Return Trip 706 ks average speed 92 kmh fuel consumption point to point Burwood Vic to Forbes NSW 8.5 litres/100ks

Not bad for something weighing 2 tonnes

Because they can AND most diesel is purchased by commercial users many of whom receive significant rebates. Therefore, there is no need for the oil companies to give the product away at reduced prices. Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear.

In Brisbane, there was difference in price of 24 cents this morning, now its 7 cents, big jump today
Shane

LPG a constant 60 cents a litre in Melbourne.

I cannot, do not and will not ever understand the obsession with diesel 4wd's.

Price is because the fuel companies can charge what they like (according to a certain govt dept)

It's interesting. I complained to the ACCC - I know it's pointless but I was a bit grumpy at the time and it made me feel better - about the price of diesel jumping to $1.639 a ltr on the day before Easter at Lakes Entrance, when it was still about $1.53 in Bairnsdale.

They actually rang me back a week or so later and the bloke agreed that the price was substantially higher than diesel in Gippsland at the time, but didn't appear all that interested in it. This is despite the fact that the company who owned the servo in question has a chain of them running further up the hwy to Melbourne, and they would have been selling the same fuel at market prices in Sale Traralgon etc.

He did explain though that other than the price cycle issues, the other issue with diesel vs unleaded was that diesel prices were based on some other barrel price (I can't recall what he called it) other than the Singapore Light Crude price that unleaded is based on.

He explained that over the past 18 months the diesel wholesale barrel price has been creeping up faster than the Singapore Light Crude price.

A reason given for this was that the massive growth in car ownership in China and India has largely been in diesel powered vehicles. This he said has been driving the supply demand issue that has seen the growth in demand for diesel in Asia push the price of diesel up faster than that of petrol.

I still think it's screwed that we get charged so much. I'm convince that the government and the ACCC don't care and short of tax reduction on fuel or regulation of price are powerless to stop the fuel cartels, oops, I mean companies. (Then again OPEC is a cartel...)

But it's the first plausible explanation I've heard to explain what I see each week at the pump.

Dave

The historical reasons for owning a Diesel.
1/. Better pulling power under load,
2/. Able to operate WITHOUT a battery,
3/. Longer lasting engine,
4/. Fuel available from any farmer in an emergency,
5/. Better fuel economy than a comparable sized petrol engine,
6/. Cheaper price at the pump.

Bought my first 4b in 1979 when dieso was half the price of petrol. Have seen a diesel cruiser run on oil, straight out of the oilfield ( might depend on when the dinosaur died of course ). Never used used to worry about getting a flat battery.

Today I own petrol 4b's as the diesel concept has been destroyed, fuel prices are chraged out at " what can we get " rather than " whatis it worth " pricing and petrol motors have been improved in terms of strenth and torque ratios. As all new vehicles are full of unnescessary computer components, a new diesel is not worth considering for general use.

My........how things have changed for the better, as technology works for us.

This is the benchmark

Rodbart

Perhaps the answer lies in the question, "Why is diesel in Australia cheaper then in most other western nations?"

R.

Not sure of the truth of this but someone told me that....

In the greens-liberal negotiations around the GST introduction the greens lobbied for an extra tax to be put on 'dirty diesel fuel' for their help in getting the GST through.
The thinking was that trucks over 5T were eligable for tax/fuel rebates and other business users of diesel would claim 10% back through the GST and so the people that pay for this is private users mainly of 4WD's.
Now there are more small and clean diesel cars on the roads I wonder if anything will change.

cheers
John

Some of the facts……

Diesel is a mid-distillate similar to heating oils, kerosene and jet A1 fuel. As such the production of diesel is in competition with these other products. Demand for the various products is cyclical. For example, the Northern Hemisphere has been in winter and demand for heating oils and consequently production has been higher. There is only so much fuel a refinery can produce and it will be directed according to demand.

The cry often that often goes out as to why pricing in Australia is linked to the price of the product in Singapore and what has demand in other countries got to do with the price in Australia. The answer is simple; fuel, in any form, is a commoditised product and therefore supply and demand issues, no matter where they occur will affect the price of the fuel. We live on an island for sure, but we are part of a global economy.

Other considerations include the fact that the use of diesel powered vehicles is higher in other countries than it is in Australia, and this, combined with surging demand from industry, both in Australia and abroad is putting pressure on the supply of diesel from the refineries.

At the end of the day we can argue every day about the price of fuel and whether it should be 10 cents higher or lower at any given time (and this is another issue altogether), however the reality is that the base input for fuel, oil, is in high demand due, in part, to the surging economic growth in China and India and as a consequence high oil and fuel prices are here to stay.

As for the daily price variations this is the discounting cycle at work, it is well documented, and without doubt we are better off for it. Those that argue for an end to these price variations are effectively asking for an end to the discounting that brings these variations about – the end result, you pay a higher price everyday instead of on selected days.

I’m having a guess here, but I think what gets up every bodies nose about fuel prices in general is that all governments tell us that they feel our pain, yet their happy to be getting the % in taxes/ revenue from higher fuel prices! So in reality they don't give a toss what fuel costs.
The higher the pump price the more tax they receive.
I also believe that the people in government that that can make a difference won't because if fuel was $3.00 a litre it still would not hurt them in the hip pocket.

And that's my 0.03 of a litres worth, @ $1.50 per litre

Just to put thing into persective.
I received this reply from a customer who was travelling from England to NZ in his 80 series.

I fell off my chair, you can't buy water for that.

Quote
Thanks for adding our webpage as a link from your website... all the publicity we can get always helps!

I must say your Longranger tanks were really great during the expedition...
especially in Iran where we paid 2c a litre for diesel... we filled up everything we could ;o)

Ric
www.thelongranger.com.au

A question.
Other countries that do not produce the bulk of their own crude oil, do their resident's pay the same a we do per litre for diesel? Taking in to account, exchange rates, and such things.

Just curious, ;-)