Australia Has Cheap Fuel - Who Says So? - Shell

[Wongo]

Drive less and find an alternative. The car culture in the first world must change whether you like it or not.

[Gingermick]

But people either cant afford to or if they can, dont want to, live where they work. I ride a motor bike and this aids congestion and pollution, even though it's a 2-stroke road bike.

[echnidna]

ahhh pollution. The good Old Days weren't that hot

there was horse crap everywhere, lots of stink and big flies all over the place.

[woodbe]

Interesting comparison of ULP, Diesel and Gas pricing and payback. The recent escalation in Diesel pricing has been cruel.

http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mell...257455001A7C0E

[wheelinround]

I chat to a lady from Tennesee regularly and she said US pices there were approx $3.60 a gal meaning they are paying approx 79c per ltr.

[woodbe]

I chat to a lady from Tennesee regularly and she said US pices there were approx $3.60 a gal meaning they are paying approx 79c per ltr.

Worse that that...

US Gallon is 3.8 litres. Thats 94 US cents per litre. Close enough to an aussie dollar per litre.

woodbe.

[Studley 2436]

I am so sorry for those guys a dollar a litre that must be really tough! *LOL*

Actually I think in Europe they pay about double what we do.

Studley

[Ashore]

Some time back had a local servo with a sign up petrol 47cents/litre + taxes , took about 3 days till he had to remove it under major threats etc, petrol was about $1.10 / litre at the time Dudd has said he may remove the GST on the excise ( spelling ) and the state governments are saying this will be a loss of ( N.S.W. ) 330 million a year and that will impact on schools and hospitals , give us a break its less than 1/4 the increase in GST on petrol they have made in the last year. Poor labor they can't blame John Howard anymore , and BTW where are all those true labor people now , all they could do prior to the last elections was complain about the federal Goverment and put $hit on howard why are they so quiet now that the economy is going into massive inflation fuel and food bills are through the roof and Dudd has looked after the penisioners and those struggling in the last budget, plus removed ( as he promised ) work choices,

[Calm]

Ashore you dont vote liberal by any chance do you?

[Cruzi]

In 1998 crude oil was around US$10-11 a barrel, we were paying 74c a litre, crude oil has increased tenfold since then but around double at the pump, not bad going.

In 1996 there was around 2100 oil rigs worldwide doing exploration and production holes, in 1998 there was less than 400.

Oil companies decided to stop exploration to cut costs and the industry lost a hell of a lot of its experienced people.
In 2001 prices started to increase oil companies still did no exploration rather deciding to buy other companies to expand production.
By 2003 companies were to big to buy out each other and finally started exploration and field development. This generally takes 8 years.
In one field alone the expenditure has reached US$8 billion over 6 years and production is only due in next 12 months.
Oil is now a very difficult resource to find and extract, rigs cost from US$150,000 a day, (last rig I worked cost US$250,000 a day and each hole took 5 months to drill), deepwater rigs cost more, infastructure costs several billion more to put in place.

The whole reason for oil prices rising is supply and demand, supply is increasingly difficult and expensive, demand is ever increasing, the US is no longer the major consumer, removing its control, China now has nearly as many millionaires as the population of the US.

I have no sympathy for the Soccer mum in her huge 4wd complaining about petrol prices, I do feel for farmers and transport services.
You can complain about oil prices, blame the governments and oil companies all you like, but until you stop relying on oil, you are also to blame.
Oil is finite, it may get cheaper, but that is only temporary, we had the chance during the energy crisis of the 1970's , how about we do something now.