Fuel prices

I'm not bashing Americans, I never met one I didn't like....but they have 2% of the world's population and use 20% of the worlds oil. We should in a friendly way try and ask them to put the price up so they don't use it so quickly. Like it or not we are running out. Cheers

Cause we have a pack of wankers running the country with no balls to stand upto anything or anyone. Just told my wife Ill be glad I wont be around in 50 years cause this country is going to be screwed..........

Hi Longtooth,

"Can somebody remind me why we are paying the prices we do here. "

We have a fuel commissioner that sits on his backside and watches the price, that's his job, not a bad Gig if you can get it.
We also have a tax system where the government rakes in more from the the higher pump price and they don't pay for their fuel, we pay for it. It could be 3 buck a lt, they don't give a toss.
Beside all the other reasons, Singapore, demand, super refineries in Asia and so on.

What can we do about it?

Squat all your Honor.

Here we go again. The basics are simple - supply and demand - plus or minus political issues in the main supply regions and a little market speculation from time to time - primarily drive international oil prices.

Parity oil pricing was introduced in Australia by the Fraser conservative govt decades ago (1978), at least in part to help local producers to remain competitive and encourage exploration in Australia. It has been very successful in that regard.

But as we know govt tax makes up about 25% of the bowser price - 38c/litre (down from 47c in 1999). The indexation of petroleum products excise rates was abolished in 2001 so the govt's take is actually lower than it was a decade ago, even when you add in GST.

In the good ol USA, local, state and fed taxes add from 26.4c per gallon (Alaska) to 67.5c/g (California) - average across all states of 48.9c/g. In our 'money' that is just 12.9c/litre on average.

Now take a look at the current budget situations in Australia and the USA. American national debt is >100% of GDP and their budget deficit is $1.2Trillion, about 9% of GDP with little prospect of a return to surplus for decades. Australia's debt to GDP is ~22% with a deficit of ~1.5% of GDP and a likely return to deficit within 1-2 years. Surely that tells you something.

Oil prices have 'stabilised' somewhat as a result of the GFC and the only reason our pump prices haven't reached $2/litre (average) is because of the current high rate of the $A. Things won't be getting any easier on the fuel cost front and apart from 'fiddling at the edges' there is little govts can do about it.

Don't blame the fuel companies for all the greed..... the old US of A pays around 11 cents per litre of fuel give or take a few cents in fuel excise.

AND here in the lucky country Australia the poor government takes a measly 60 to 70 cents per litre.

As it's always been said the government looks at vehicle drives as a cash cow.... the same way they look at drinkers and smokers.

Sure fuel is always going to be more expensive here in the lucky land due to freight, distribution costs and volume sold..... so if you take out the governments small amount of excise we are paying around the 80 to 90 cents per litre mark.

And why doesn't the government investigate the fuel companies.... firstly why would you kill the golden goose and secondly maybe an investigation may bring up to much dirt about the government and how they take nearly half of the cost of fuel per litre.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_tax

Me thinks we always believe the grass is always greener on the other side of da fence.

RA.

Following is a breakdown of the price you pay at the pump...

Australian Terminal Gate Price (TGP) Composition is roughly...

Singapore Gasoil (diesel): 59%
Excise (government): 24%
GST (government): 8%
Other: 9%

Other includes, freight, distribution & storage, sales & marketing, insurance, & refinery margins (refiners’ revenue).

It is worth noting that recently Caltex indicated that it is reviewing its long-term refining commitment in Australia, in a nutshell, the revenue generated doesn’t match the capital required...in a release to the ASX in late February it said, "Decision on refinery review approximately six months away – considering all options to improve shareholder value, ranging from investment to closure."

Mobil closed Port Stanvac many years ago because the cost of upgrades to meet government requirements didn’t meet the revenue versus capital required argument.

You'd be wrong to think that fuel refiners are making a lot of money out of refining oil into a petroleum product...

And my tilt on prices, the world is consuming more and more each and every day, so there is only one way prices will go in the long term - up!

The Landy