Reading blogs written by people in the USA, it has become obvious that the rising cost of petrol (which is called gas in the USA) has been biting there as well as in the UK. What is surprising, though, is that the price being complained about is actually less than half of what we pay here in the UK.
I subscribe to e-mail updates from a website called Petrol Prices which regularly lets me know where my nearest and cheapest petrol is available. Please note that the prices listed on the website are per liter and not per gallon.
The cheapest petrol in my area, according to the email update I received from them today, is 103.9 pence per liter. There are 3.79 liters in a US Gallon, which means that today I would have to pay 103.9 pence X 3.79 = 393.78 pence for one US Gallon of petrol.
At today's exchange rate £1 is equal to $1.9737 US. So 393.78 pence equals £3.9378, which, when multiplied by the exchange rate of 1.9737, gives you $7.77 US. Folks, this is the cheapest petrol available in my area!
One of my Blog-Buddies in the USA was shocked because petrol in her area was being sold for $3.05 per Gallon two days ago. I'm shocked that it's so cheap in the USA, and this begs the question: Why?
Why is petrol in the UK more than twice as expensive as it is in the USA? I know that a huge proportion of the cost is made up of taxes, but even so, more than double the cost makes you wonder what's going on.
There was an article in the Times Online on January 6 which compared living standards in the USA and the UK. It touched on petrol prices, but didn't try to analyze why things are so much cheaper in the US when compared to the UK. However, some of the comments made by readers are very interesting and informative.
I also found a website that compares prices worldwide, and this is real eye opener.
Looking at the prices being charged makes me wonder whether they're all selling the same commodity which, when sold in its crude form as oil, changes hands on the world market at a single fixed price.
