No its all due to the world oil price isnt it

Funny thing isn't it

Why don't we base our price on china and the government use China's methods.

AW that's rite its all to do with the price of a barrel.

No that's rite the ACCC is keeping an eye on anything that's no on the level.

All the best
Eric

You know CYC these major oil companies are really struggling. They are justified in charging us so much for fuel because they very well may go broke.

The Aussie governement only has an $18 billion budget surplus so they need all of the money they can get, 38c per litre of fuel. But they can't reduce that tax because that would increase inflation making fuel even more expensive.

The coal industry does need the tens of millions of $ in diesel subsidies given to them by our government because they are struggling fincancially too.

Barnesy

Its ok for the to make a profit but why dont they have a competition , for each state everyone keep their receipts and at the end of the yr send them in to try and win your mortgage to be paid off! They make enough and this wouldnt dint their profit that much! Hve like 4 winners for each state........seriously!!!!

Im all up for profit, just hand some out and not be greedy!

Oil Companies greedy???????????? Never. I mean, we are being told all the time they aren't manipulating their prices to benefit themselves.

I want a job with the ACCC. They must pay their employees a fortune for doing as little as possible.

I wonder if the ACCC is sponsored by the Oil Companies?

Besides, be nice to the Oil companies, they own all the technology already that will replace the petrol combustion engine when the oil runs out in about another 100 years or so, or is that sooner and that's why the price is increasing? Gosh, I wonder who you need to believe? Oil prices wouldn't have anything to do with Iraq either would it? The war on Iraq was instigated because of all those nasty weapons of mass destruction Saddam had stockpiled away and nothing to do with oil.

What will we all be saying when the price hits say $5 a litre or even $10 ? It will, one day.

Be happy though. Providing your super funds have invested heavily in Oil companies.

Don't let it get you down... KRudd's going to fix the economy by increasing the tax on beer............ 8--(((

Eric, dear me. Tut Tut. Are you suggesting that oil companies are making obscene profits ?
You can't do that on this forum, you'll get slammed by those with interests in the industry !
I know, Chukkie, I know !

For all you guys who continually stick up for the oil companies and obviously believe we are not getting ripped off please send me your address as I would like to send you all an offer to purchase land i am selling in Antarctica and the Simpson Desert for 250K an acre.
Yeh right! Wake up and get with the program.
No one likes to admit they are being conned but get over it we are and big time.

I personally think it this level if increase to profits is obscene, but it's not just fuel, it's the Reserve Bank, power suppliers etc.
USA's interest rate is around 2%, and their fuel is cheaper.
Obviously the big drawback for living in the USA is having to live in the USA.
The biggest benefit they have is a history of political assassinations, where we don't.
Our politicians seem to have no regard for the poor or soon to be poor, because they have virtual immunity to wrong decisions.
The Qld Government is directly responsible for inept doctors killing people, goat tracks instead of roads killing people, too much judicial control ensuring criminals don't go to jail because we don't have enough room, thus putting them back on the streets selling drugs and (just for a change) killing people.
And what can we do?. All we can do is vote them out to an endless gravy train.
Maybe the USA has something to teach us after all.

Prices for any consumer good are not set on cost to produce etc etc but more so on what customers are prepared to pay. If oil companies can charge high prices for their product thereby increasing their profits then that's what they will do.

When their profits begin to be threatened then the oil companies will review their business again, including pricing.

Barnesy

The Finance report on last night's ABC news showed a useful graph for this discussion. It compared demand for oil with successful oil exploration. What it showed was that over the last 10 years, very little new oil has been found whereas demand for oil continues to rise rapidly. Crude oil is sold on an auction system, so the price goes up and down daily depending on stocks and supplies and weather etc. The only way to change this is to produce more oil or consume less. Opec could pump more out, but current oilfields have peaked and this would simply bring on a major catastrophe faster when the wall is hit. Better to buy as much time as possible and hope technology will find some answers. The same thinking is behind Australia's fuel tax. While we were pretty well self sufficient in oil, we could have sold it much cheaper, but as we only had limited reserves, the decision was made to keep the price more or less on a par with international prices so that our economy would adjust to that reality. Probably a good thing as our reserves are pretty well gone.
The sad thing is that the politicians used the fuel windfall to wind back Australian taxes rather than invest in new technology. They were possibly correct in this because that is what the Greens wanted to do and we all know how most Australians responded to this sort of thinking 10 years ago. Who would you have voted for 10 years ago? A party that said we will give you tax breaks or a party that said we will put the $ into developing alternative fuel?