Petrol Prices - Are we being ripped off

Brendan552004

Oil is bought 6 months ahead, why are we paying inflated prices at the pumps for petrol/diesel that has already been bought at a much lower price. The recent hike in crude oil prices should not hit the pumps for 3/6 months.

As a group I think we should keep ourselves informed of the price differentials in our areas, in other words save ourselves money.

There is a very good website that we can all update with the prices being charged in our areas. Next time you are out, check the prices being charged in your local stations. If your local station is not listed, you can add in new stations.

http://www.petrolgauge.com/ie/

Stations that do not yet have the price listed: change the county at the end of the URL for your county

http://www.petrolgauge.com/ie/prices/unleaded.asp?county=Dublin

If your local station is not listed:

http://www.petrolgauge.com/ie/prices/new.asp

Hobbes

Two reasons I can think of.

1. The station has to have enough money to buy the gas at a future date.
2. They have to factor in the possible chance the price would drop in the future and they are left with expensive gas they have to sell at a discount.

flogen

This is probably better suited to Commuting/Transport.

Moved.

Thomond Pk

You ain't seen nothing yet; the best way to explain it was the Air China 747 cargoliner on the tarmac at New Orleans fully laden with product that had been flown from Shanghai but could have been sourced more locally. If the Goldman Sachs Scenario plays out try about 1.90 a litre for about a two year period

Occidental

Best I noted last night was 124 for diesel in Athlone, while 20 minutes up the road in Ballymahon 107.

Zaph0d

I guess the govt will reduce petrol taxes once the price goes above a certain level. But what will that level be? €1.50?

Baldie

Zaph0d wrote:

I guess the govt will reduce petrol taxes once the price goes above a certain level.

A pig just flew past my window......

jrey1981

I notice Gordon Brown has frozen duty in UK.

I have been wondering myself if petrol retailers hedge the future price of oil as airlines do. Lets face it - it is only going one way. I remember reading Ryanair has hedged price at $46 until March or something.

If petrol retailers have done something similar then we are being ripped off big time and they are just increasing the price in reaction to oil price rises when their actual costs are not rising immediately.

antoinolachtnai

If you think hedging would be a good way to get lower fuel prices, you should hedge them yourself.

It would be very unusual for a petrol retailer to take a position on the future price of petrol.

MrPudding

Interseting article about what is going on in the states petrol-wise.

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-gasdown0909.artsep09,0,63341.story?coll=hc-headlines-business

MrP

30-6shooter

2. They have to factor in the possible chance the price would drop in the future and they are left with expensive gas they have to sell at a discount.

But it never goes down? So they wont have to sell at a discount. The government better step in sometime soon, its all getting a bit much, and the government are rapidly losing popularity with everyone over this and the Rip off programme.

MrPudding

30-6shooter wrote:

But it never goes down? So they wont have to sell at a discount. The government better step in sometime soon, its all getting a bit much, and the government are rapidly losing popularity with everyone over this and the Rip off programme.

If you take a look at the article I linked to you will see tha it does go down. I suppose that over the long term the trend is up but over the short term it is in a constant up and down.

MrP

Victor

jrey1981 wrote:

I notice Gordon Brown has frozen duty in UK.

Oddly we have the same position, duty hasn't changed in yonks.

I have been wondering myself if petrol retailers hedge the future price of oil as airlines do.

I don't think individual retailers do, but the distributors (whether subsidiaries of producers or not) will have.

Laguna

No, petrol in this country has a rule, once it goes up it stays up. Americans are bitching about paying 55c a litre whil we're looking at a rate in excess of 1.20 a litre. Now they control the oil they got whilst "liberating" Iraq, they'll make us pay, pure and simple.

Zaph0d

So petrol in the UK is €1.50 already so I guess that Irish consumers would pay that too. Eventually a point must come where consumers including industries that rely on oil, put massive pressure on the govt to reduce duty or VAT. Further price rises could then be capped by cutting tax but if the price goes high enough there is nothing you can do, other than take the pain or subsidise oil.

What would happen if petrol reached €4/litre? I imagine public transport and bikes in cities would get more popular, but what about long distance car commuters?

Which Irish industries would be hit worst by high oil prices?

How would Ireland fare in a global recession?

vibe666

got an email from a mate in the UK starting a cmpaign to lower fuel prices there.

they tried just not buying fuel for a day, but i think they got laughed at because the petrol companies knew they'd all buy it the next day, so they didn't lose a cent.

the new plan is to boycot the two largest petrol stations (think it's shell & bp) completely, and just buy petrol from the others until the two biggest lower prices to an acceptable level.

sounds like it could actually work if they get enough people to do it. vote with their feet against the ones who can make a difference.

vibe666

just as a side note. filled up this morning (just a fiesta) and put 30 litres in. cost me €35.38 @ 117.9c at a shell garage on the N2.

I was thinking about it and with my limited mathematics ability, I noticed that that's over €5 more than before the rises started going mad.

and that was just 30 litres.

If I had a big car with a 60 litre tank, that'd be an extra tenner on a tank of fuel. uckily for me, with me only having a little car it's only using about 15 litres a week on average, so it's not too bad, but it all makes a difference.

LFCFan

The UK has higher fuel costs, but they have a proper car tax system where the more emissions from your car the higher the cost and the max is still only around £150 a year. Here we have high fuel duties and high car tax.

A Dub in Glasgo

Car tax is £170 for a year.

People over here are panic buying. I do 700 miles per week at the moment as I am working in Preston, living during the week in Stockport and going to Glasgow for the weekend. I need to fill up tomorrow to get back home on Friday but the petrol is running out and there are big queues. Madness

Genghis

A Dub in Glasgo wrote:

Car tax is £170 for a year.

People over here are panic buying. I do 700 miles per week at the moment as I am working in Preston, living during the week in Stockport and going to Glasgow for the weekend. I need to fill up tomorrow to get back home on Friday but the petrol is running out and there are big queues. Madness

I seen reports of this, and I have to say I am baffled. All you can buy is your tankful, it is not as if you are going to avoid future price rises altogether by buying now. I dunno, sitting for an hour in a queue (according to TV reports ome queues were one hour long) must burn more fuel in itself than whatever savings you hope to achieve.