Fuel up/down again

Princey said:
What is the cost of living like in those counties compared to ours, excluding motoring?
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Belgium and Australia? Probably higher, I'd imagine. Certainly not appreciably less. Ever tried buying a bar of chocolate in Australia?

I would take your point that motoring is cripplingly expensive if you were not sat beside the keys to a 600bhp V8 Coupe which you can afford to own simply as a toy. You own TWO cars! It can't be that expensive..
 
The supermarkets only do that when the world oil price falls.

It's currently rising fast because there is a surplus of oil, plenty of recession and so the market speculators are pushing the price up. Heading for $120 today.
 
Emlyn_Dewar said:
Painful to watch the rate at which fuel prices are increasing right now... :(
Is there an official reason as to why it's skyrocketed, or do they not need one?
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The official reason is that 3 months ago, oil hit a low of circa $90 a barrel. Today, it is almost $120 a barrel.

Key reasons why this has happened:

a) Iranian oil embargo and continuning nuclear standoff
b) Unrest in Middle East
c) Market anticipation of additional quantative easing

None of these things (with the partial exception of the Iranian oil embargo) have actually affected supply or demand of oil. Infact the economic situation is particularly poor right across the world including China which is suffering a big slowdown in its growth. The prices have risen though because market speculators can buy and sell futures contracts - contracts for the delivery of oil in the future.

They buy them on anticipation of these things causing price increases so they can resell them for more money. They dont want oil and dont take delivery of oil - they are merely trading the contracts. It is often a self fulfilling propecy as more and more purchases like this increases the price.

Effectively then oil is expensive because of what might perhaps possibly could maybe happen to the supply situation of oil, not what has actually happened.
 
MissChief said:
There was an explosion at an oil refinery in Venezuela last week as well. Although they don't export as much as the middle east they are part of OPEC so this may have an effect on prices.
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They don't really export refined products though do they? That facility produced refined products for domestic use. They export unrefined crude, which wasn't affected?
 
So basically, spend 1400 quid get a free tank of fuel worth 80 quid. Barely 5%. It amazes me anyone would bother with the faff for that let alone write a news article on it. You would save more than that by not buying your 1400 quid item on the high street anyway.
 
Jono8 said:
. Is oil going up again quite quickly or what?
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Yup, it's almost at $120 now.

Basically every time 'good news' about the world economy comes out, market speculators buy loads of crude futures contracts so they can resell them at a profit.

Which ends up pushing the price up and invariably ends up ruining whatever 'good news' was coming out about the world economy anyway.

Plus the worse our economy does - not helped by higher oil prices - the lower the value of sterling, which increases fuel price for us even more. Good isn't it?
 
Minstadave said:
When did Sainsburys change from charging 3p to 5p extra for 97RON? I always liked cheapo Sainsbury's super now and again.
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Few months back, so I stopped buying it as there is little point when Tesco 99 has the same 5p premium.

Fuel prices have further to rise, not only has the price of oil risen but its then more expensive for us as sterling continues to slide against the dollar.

Never mind, sure the BoE knows what it's doing.
 
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Interestingly Brent Crude is now down almost $7 from its peak earlier this month. If that was to hold, we should see a halt to the rise - for now - or perhaps even a small reduction. Though thats a big if, I'd imagine world oil prices will continue upwards reasonably soon, coupled with the double blow of the pound getting weaker, especially in light of the news that the deputy governer of the Bank of England thinks negative interest rates are 'worth thinking about' which didn't really impress the forex markets..
 
pugheaven said:
The problem I have it's all a matter of money making from governments. Diesel used to be cheaper, then everyone switched and now it's more expensive.
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The government have played no part in the differential in price between diesel and petrol for almost 15 years. Duty on petrol and diesel is the same has been for a very long time indeed.
 
clv101 said:
The main reasons diesel costs more per litre is that there's more energy in it! Diesel is 37.3 MJ/l where petrol is only 34.2MJ/l, ie you get 8% more energy in a litre of diesel... what's the price difference again?
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Well its not really the reason is it, the wholesale rate isn't set according to energy content, its set according to supply and demand!
 
Rilot said:
For the last 2 days, I decided to test our public transport system rather than take the car.

So, train from Twyford to Four Oaks yesterday - £93 - 3 hours elapsed time (would have been just over 2 hours to drive) and I didn't get a seat from Reading to Birmingham. 1.5hrs standing.
Then I had the problem of getting from our office to my hotel. No station near the hotel so I had to take a taxi - £8
Taxi again this morning - £8
Then 3 hours home later. Probably standing again.

So, I spent £109 and had to stand for most of it.
Next time I'll drive.

Until fuel is £3+ per litre, it's still better to drive when you consider the comfort and speed.
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£93 from Twyford to Four Oaks?

There isn't a £93 fare, the anytime fare via XC is slightly more but provided you are ok to use a train that arrives at Paddington after 10:10 then an Offpeak Return route London is £60 and will pretty much guarantee you a seat. There is a cheaper Route Oxford ticket valid on any train after 0930 at £52 but as you've already discovered CrossCountry services can suffer from capacity constraints.

I don't know how you managed to pay £93 unless there was some sort of combination of Advance tickets in which case you would have had a seat reservation.

If you insisted on travelling at peak time using the route you used today using a combination of split tickets you can do it forl £74, which is cheaper than the standard Anytime Return.

Alternatively for not much more than the £93 you apparently paid, you could travel First Class anytime for £112 route Oxford (ie, the route you took).
 
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