Are the government misleading us all about oil prices.....You MUST read this...

Nilrem

It's about the same price before you take into account the taxman's cut.

IE we buy it at roughly the same price as America, but then we add about 3-4 times the original cost onto it as taxes, whilst America might only add 1-2 times the original cost as taxes (depending on which state you are in).

So basically if we don't buy it others will as, and given how much China and India are starting to use the only way for the price of oil to go is up - even if we doubled production the demand would dictate the price wouldn't drop that much (unless the government dropped the amount of duty we pay, and imposed a duty on fuel exported to try and keep it inside the uk).

ZTD

LilacPixie wrote: »

Nope, new technologies and advances in drilling techniques means they have a conservitive estimate of 50 years left with even more pockets left unexplored.

It's never about reserves. It's all about production levels.

There will be North Sea Oil available in a thousand years time - it's just it will be coming out the ground measured in pints per day, not barrels.

Production levels peaked years ago for the North Sea - it was just recently that they fell enough so we became a net importer of oil again.

Globally - Hubbert's Peak is upon us.

poppy10_2

In America the average price for unleaded is only 33p a litre. And they're still bleating about how expensive it is!

ZTD

poppy10 wrote: »

In America the average price for unleaded is only 33p a litre. And they're still bleating about how expensive it is!

Because it is. In America the average car returns just over 20 mpg - which means 50% return less than that. Also their cities are built on a bigger scale - with less local amenities, so their average journey distance per day is more than ours.

It all adds up so their daily spend in fuel is not vastly different from ours.

Of course it does vary for them just like it varies for us.

nimbo

i thought one of the reasons that fuel prices were going up was due to the fact that natural gas/oil were running out...

the earth took millions of years to produce what we have now basically run dry...

if it's about supply and demand, then surly the fact that the supply will soon be non existant will be driving up the price????

ZTD

nimbo wrote: »

i thought one of the reasons that fuel prices were going up was due to the fact that natural gas/oil were running out...

the earth took millions of years to produce what we have now basically run dry...

if it's about supply and demand, then surly the fact that the supply will soon be non existant will be driving up the price????

It's a mis-conception that we are running out. We have basically half left. The problem arises because production drops as the reserves get smaller.

Think of it as a great pile of sand:

In the beginning, you can get loads of guys with shovels in and you can fill wheelbarrows like they are going out of fashion. The sand you're selling is cheap. When the pile shrinks, you might only be able to get one guy with a shovel in, who takes a while to fill the wheelbarrow. At the end, you'll have a guy with a spoon, scooping up the grains, and he'll laugh at your wheelbarrow.

If demand (which is a flow-based demand since the oil is consumed) remains the same, then price is bound to go up in order to choke it off.

Herbie21

ZTD

You certianly know your stuff !!!

I am most impressed....