BensGrandad
New member
Out of my league here, but isn't crude oil the same price everywhere or do we pay more than USA for it to justify the price of petrol or is it entirely down to our taxes.
That's a result. I'm going to be there in a couple of weeks driving around some of the south eastern states. 31p a litre sounds good to me!
Out of my league here, but isn't crude oil the same price everywhere or do we pay more than USA for it to justify the price of petrol or is it entirely down to our taxes.
What many people fail to remember is that although petrol prices may be cheaper, the distances between towns/cities is much larger.
It's taxed higher in Europe certainly, but you have to bear in mind that American consumes a lot of petrol.
Something like 40% of the total world production.
I've also read that the average mpg of a car in the USA in well, well below what you you would find in this country.
Their whole economy is built around oil. Oil is traded in dollars pretty much everywhere.
Economics isn't my thing, but I understand that if every other country decided to buy and sell oil in another currency, the American economy would fall to it's knees.
Countries buying and selling oil need to keep reserves of dollars for that very purpose. If they didn't have need for those dollars then the world economy would be flooded with dollars (to be exchanged for other currencies) and like any other product when supply increases over demand - the price falls.
Basically the dollar would fall in value and they would be in trouble.
That's why the USA get so twitchy when a country threatens to do it.
No great surprise that Saddam was threatening that very thing prior to the invasion.
Any economics students out there, I would greatly appreciate a proper run down on the Petrodollar.
Out of my league here, but isn't crude oil the same price everywhere or do we pay more than USA for it to justify the price of petrol or is it entirely down to our taxes.