Fuel Prices

[mikey4444]

I have filled up at Tesco this morning and diesel cost me £120.9 a litre. Leaving aside the impossibility of paying for exactly one litre, I can't remember the last when it was so cheap. And it could get even cheaper soon, according to the BBC today :::

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30643816

[mikey4444]

Thanks Clanad, for a very full reply. No wonder you guys don't have a National Health Service...how would you pay for it with such low taxes ?

Happy New Year to everybody !

[EDDIE51]

Low oil prices are mainly due to Saudi Arabia refusing to cut production .
One strong theory is that Saudi wants to 'punish' Russia for supplying arms to it's Arch enemy in the mid east Iran and for supporting Syria another enemy.
Saudi can afford to sell oil at low prices for years if necessary with very low production cost and over $750Billion in the bank. They know Russia needs a cost of $100 a barrel just to break even and that oil/gas it virtually it's only source of non rouble currency. They reason that if they can keep the price at $60 or below for long enough they can bankrupt Russia.
Saudi with it's huge oil reserves will still have oil decades/ centuries after the rest of the world is 'dry'. One Saudi field alone The' Ghawa' has more proven oil than the rest of the world put together! I used to work with the Saudi government gaugers office.

[tonyav]

Asda are dropping the price again, I'm sure the other supermarkets will follow.
http://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/news/asda-makes-further-fuel-price-cut/ar-BBhnhQl

[penelope2]

The internal unrest in Libya may well put paid to low oil/petrol prices before long.

[EDDIE51]

Just found an old photo of me and my mate' Belfast Dave' out in the 'Empty Quarter' with our 7 litre Chevrolet 4 wheel drive trucks on 'Sand Tyres' together with 4 Filipino technicians , when we were checking flow rates from some oil wells . There are 10,000 s of these wells in Saudi , just pipes sticking up from the desert but ready to be 'piped in' to the network if needed. It is that easy to increase production in Saudi just plumb in and turn on! We were on 24 million BPD then with capacity to go to 50 million within 76 hours if necessary!

[Retrochic]

yes I remember the heady days in Alberta when I could fill up my Ram 3500 V8 full tank for $60

[jourdain2]

Seems like we should make hay whilst the sun shines and use any cash saved thereby to invest in methods of protection against massive oil price hikes in future, then. OK.

[EDDIE51]

Retro, petrol was 17 pence a US Gallon in 1984 Saudi ! I had a Plymouth Grand Fury 7 litre V8 you could land a helicopter on the bonnet ( sorry Hood!)

[Hopkirk]

This drop in price has a lot to do with Ukraine, and the US waging economic war on Russia.

It'll end in tears.

[EDDIE51]

^^ yes the US through its Saudi oil partner Aramco ( Arabian American Oil Company) now renamed SaudiAramco . I lived in Dhahran the Aramco HQ for 3 years. It was just like 'small town USA'