Prices of fuel,around Europe.

[BIGGYIN]

Country Unleaded 95 petrol price per litre in euros February 21st 2012 Diesel price per litre in euros February 21st 2012
Austria 1.43 1.42
Belgium 1.56 1.40
Czech Rep 1.35 1.36
Denmark 1.77 1.61
France 1.60 1.43
Germany 1.68 1.51
Hungary 1.26 1.26
Ireland 1.60 1.56
Italy 1.80 1.74
Latvia 1.41 1.40
Luxembourg 1.39 1.27
Netherlands 1.70 1.40
Norway 1.89 1.72
Poland 1.35 1.40
Portugal 1.55 1.45
Slovakia 1.49 1.43
Slovenia 1.35 1.29
Spain 1.38 1.33
Sweden 1.63 1.63
Switzerland 1.39 1.53
United Kingdom 1.61 1.69

Petrol left-Diesel right. All in Euros

Hate to run a Ferrari,in Italy or Norway.

[Daveymaclad]

What's most interesting is that more countries than not have their petrol prices more expensive than diesel.

Makes sense to charge more for petrol as it is consumed by vehicles that are generally less fuel efficient and the actual refining process is more expensive!

[SorenR]

Interresting....

I had a look at the Danish Energy and Oil forum and extracted some historical data...



If you look at the "calculated present-value", value of 1L fuel compared to average income/living expenses/car fuel efficiency, you'll find that petrol was more "expensive" around 1981-83 than it is now...

[ian20v]

Cheaper than chips in North Africa ,still very cheap in USA though it has risen there in recent months.

[John.]

Originally Posted by Daveymaclad

What's most interesting is that more countries than not have their petrol prices more expensive than diesel.

Makes sense to charge more for petrol as it is consumed by vehicles that are generally less fuel efficient and the actual refining process is more expensive!

Can't remember where I read it but back in the day when the UK oil refineries were being constructed, it was petrol that was the "main" fuel and no-one anticipated the use of diesel like it is today, therefor the refineries were built with petrol in mind, NOT diesel. This is why diesel is more expensive.

..... or maybe not.

What's your reason...... other than the TAX

John.

[Nierca_Quattro]

Originally Posted by BIGGYIN

Hate to run a Ferrari,in Italy or Norway.

If you had Ferrari, you wouldn't care about petrol prices

[Hanuman]

On a side note, here in Montreal, Quebec (west island area), the fuel price seems to have started climbing hard, recently.

In November it was $1.28-$1.30 per litre, now it is about $1.40-$1.44, for regular nasty unleaded.

Exchange is About $1.58cad : £1

[rtz62]

Local chip shop is a good source of raw material, n no, I dont mean fish & chips JJ!
Seriously thinking about it, as currently tooling around in brothers Range Rover Turbo Diseasal......

[20vcqdriver]

Originally Posted by Daveymaclad

What's most interesting is that more countries than not have their petrol prices more expensive than diesel.

Makes sense to charge more for petrol as it is consumed by vehicles that are generally less fuel efficient and the actual refining process is more expensive!

Yes I was looking at that too. Simple answer is that since more are buying Diesel, so lets put the price up more on that and milk the cow dry...

[Daveymaclad]

Originally Posted by John.

Can't remember where I read it but back in the day when the UK oil refineries were being constructed, it was petrol that was the "main" fuel and no-one anticipated the use of diesel like it is today, therefor the refineries were built with petrol in mind, NOT diesel. This is why diesel is more expensive.

..... or maybe not.

What's your reason...... other than the TAX

John.

Petrol is a more refined product further down the line from crude oil, thus requires additional treatment to get useable petrol from oil than diesel. Refineries may have been set up to Produce more petrol than diesel but that doesn't make it cheaper to produce.
Found this article which talks about this subject:

http://www.petrolprices.com/blog/why...s-to-make.html

Originally Posted by 20vcqdriver

Yes I was looking at that too. Simple answer is that since more are buying Diesel, so lets put the price up more on that and milk the cow dry...

Nail hit well and truly on head.

Govt to public "We need to reduce co2, use less fuels, drive more economical vehicles"
Govt to treasury "shit, people are using more efficient fuels so there's less tax pounds coming into the coffers"
Treasury to Govt "Well best you keep raising taxes and double duties under the guise of saving the environment to offset the shortfall"

There's another article, which I'll find later, from the AA I believe, that shows that the government has hit the downside of the bellcurve when it comes to fuel duty. They've increased duty so much that the drop in consumption year on year is so great that they've actually raised less tax revenues than the previous year!!