Fuel prices craziness

[Chris111]

20 hours ago, steve2006 said:

I wonder if fuel duty will be lowered to help the economy?".................Oh a pig has just flown over the house 😀

I agree with your sentiment but it's worth noting that the 'fuel duty' hasn't increased since 2009. The last edition of Private Eye pointed out that after last years budget fuel duty had remained frozen for the 11th consecutive year so I can't see them reducing it. The VAT element of the cost of a litre increased to 20% (can't remember if from 15% or 17.5%) but that was in 2010 I believe. My understanding is that the increase in the cost of fuel over the past few months is due to the oil producing nations cutting production resulting in the price of a barrel going up. Don't forget, with the world in lockdown for the last 12 months or more, there has been no demand for oil, so these countries that rely on the sale of oil have been hammered financially. Now the world is opening up again I guess they now want their money back.

[MartinH]

25 minutes ago, Chris111 said:

worth noting that the 'fuel duty' hasn't increased since 2009

Exactly. So much for the 'war on motorists' ! The Chancellor knows that putting up fuel duty is a guaranteed vote loser. But then so is abandoning the triple lock on pensions.

[steve2006]

I did notice that during the first lockdown unleaded dropped to 99p a litre and was one of the few times I have fully fuelled up, today was £129.9 ( the .9 should be made illegal!) and it got £30.00 worth.

Derv was £1.35 and SUP was £1.37 rounded up.

[PRT68]

1972, my first car, an Austin A30. £1.00 got me 3 gallons and lasted me a week.

(Car was my 18th birthday present, and my father put the reg. PRT68 on it that he acquired a few years earlier. Has been on all my cars ever since)

[markeyszoo]

On 8/16/2021 at 6:06 PM, b4u2 said:

1.39 approx.

feels like the prices are just going up and up 

Missing those days of 99p per litre!

Missing those days of 33 old pence a gallon😵‍💫

[royoftherovers]

3 minutes ago, markeyszoo said:

Missing those days of 33 old pence a gallon😵‍💫

2/9 a gallon.

[Malc]

don't remember it being that cheap in 1968 when I was a part time petrol pump attendant ....... used to put 15 gallons of  5*  101 octane, a week into a beautiful Roller that always came in on my weekend shift ...... a staggering £5 ............  how on earth could anyone afford to put so much petrol into a car I thought .........  that's 6/8p a gallon ...  about 7p a litre in modern money ....  those halcyon days eh !

no idea what the tax regime could have been then .... didn't feature at all on my worry platform 

Malc

[Illogan]

On 8/16/2021 at 6:15 PM, NemesisUK said:

Missing those days of 20p per litre ...

I'm missing those days of 5/11d a gallon....

(I suspect that dates me though

[royoftherovers]

10 minutes ago, Illogan said:

I'm missing those days of 5/11d a gallon....

(I suspect that dates me though

No getting away from it Methuselah old chap🤣

[Thackeray]

2 hours ago, Malc said:

that's 6/8p a gallon ...  about 7p a litre in modern money ....  those halcyon days eh !

no idea what the tax regime could have been then

That must have been a lot of tax. I remember buying petrol in Tennessee at 22 cents a (US) gallon in the early 70s. That's $2.20 to fill the tank with 10 gallons. I thought that was cheap. Working it out now, at around $2.45 to the pound (as the rate then was) it was equivalent to about 2p a litre. So there must have been a lot of tax in the UK, even in those days.

Shortly afterwards OPEC took the world-changing decision to quadruple crude oil prices. There was a big impact on the US where the price at the pump reflected the crude oil price. Less impact in the UK where much of the price at the pump was tax.

One other result was a half-century of military action to protect oil supply security. When oil is phased out in favour of Battery cars, it won't be necessary to fight wars to protect oil supplies any more.

The question then will be, where are the critical areas in the world that supply the raw materials for batteries, and will military action move to these areas to protect supplies?

[LenT]

1 hour ago, Thackeray said:

The question then will be, where are the critical areas in the world that supply the raw materials for batteries, and will military action move to these areas to protect supplies?

Currently it’s China that is the dominant supplier of rare earth elements, accounting for about 80% last year. But it used to be America.

Unsurprisingly, there’s now a lot of activity in the USA to re-establish their sourcing, extraction and processing capabilities.  And as rare earth elements are not quite as rare as the name suggests, there are sure to be plenty of opportunities and incentives for fresh discoveries worldwide.

Invest in a new shovel now, I suggest.

[dublet]

6 minutes ago, LenT said:

Currently it’s China that is the dominant supplier of rare earth elements, accounting for about 80% last year. But it used to be America.

https://graphics.reuters.com/ELECTRIC-VEHICLES-METALS/010092JB38P/index.html

I do believe China is simply the dominant supplier as they are happy to cause pollution locally and for strategic reasons of undercutting other countries. They do not however actually have that much in terms of the raw materials. This is why they are also investing heavily into various poorer countries, see their Belt and Road Initiative

[Malc]

I was reading somewhere a little while back that USA interests now own significant proportion of the Sahara ( desert ) ...  to possibly irrigate for food production and security

Malc

[Barry14UK]

I don't know whether all the manufacturer goods we buy from China count against our carbon footprint but it sure reduces the pollution it would cause here if we still made them.  So other countries are also prepared to buy cheap and let China take flak for pollution in producing goods for other countries.  China  does not do it in the cleanest way but that's something else.

[Thackeray]

20 hours ago, royoftherovers said:

20 hours ago, markeyszoo said:

Missing those days of 33 old pence a gallon😵‍💫

2/9 a gallon.

The last time petrol was two shillings and ninepence a gallon seems to have been in 1950, according to the AA. That's 71 years ago!

And before that it was 2/9 or more during the First World War.

 

[Illogan]

12 hours ago, royoftherovers said:

No getting away from it Methuselah old chap🤣

Darn!     Cover blown!

 

[dutchie01]

over here the price for a litre of 95 is now almost 2.00 Euro per litre. About 70% of that is taxes. And over here is of course Holland.

[markeyszoo]

On 8/18/2021 at 7:06 PM, Thackeray said:

The last time petrol was two shillings and ninepence a gallon seems to have been in 1950, according to the AA. That's 71 years ago!

And before that it was 2/9 or more during the First World War.

 

Asda Lincoln 1969 33p a gallon, filled up the tank for £3.50

[Thackeray]

On 8/21/2021 at 9:30 PM, markeyszoo said:

Asda Lincoln 1969 33p a gallon, filled up the tank for £3.50

So for comparison, that would have been six shillings and eightpence (6/8) in pre-decimal currency. That's pretty much in line with the AA records which put the 1969 average at six shillings and sixpence. What's more interesting is whether you managed to pay with decimal currency two years before the country went decimal in 1971! I expect you're converting to decimal for the benefit of those readers who don't understand pre-decimal.

[markeyszoo]

3 hours ago, Thackeray said:

So for comparison, that would have been six shillings and eightpence (6/8) in pre-decimal currency. That's pretty much in line with the AA records which put the 1969 average at six shillings and sixpence. What's more interesting is whether you managed to pay with decimal currency two years before the country went decimal in 1971! I expect you're converting to decimal for the benefit of those readers who don't understand pre-decimal.

You are correct. I remember it as 3 gallons for a pound, six shillings and eight old money, 33 new pence. Funny we don’t even say new pence now.

[Las Palmas]

Used to be don't count anymore.

Fuel price just got up here, from 1.13 / L to 1.23 / L. Euro.

Electricity price got a hard step up too. Almost 30%. Next will probably be water as well.

[Gregory Jones]

I can't help but wonder what the publics reaction would be, if following Brexit, petrol/diesel pumps returned to displaying the price in gallons instead of litres!

[steve2006]

On 8/21/2021 at 9:30 PM, markeyszoo said:

Asda Lincoln 1969 33p a gallon, filled up the tank for £3.50

Was that North Hykeham by any chance?

[steve2006]

11 hours ago, Gregory Jones said:

I can't help but wonder what the publics reaction would be, if following Brexit, petrol/diesel pumps returned to displaying the price in gallons instead of litres!

I just wish they would stop the “ optical pricing” like 129.9 a litre and why the pump jumps from £29.99 to £30.01.

[markeyszoo]

30 minutes ago, steve2006 said:

Was that North Hykeham by any chance?

Indeed