| Archive for langcafe2.myfreeforum.org Come in and have your daily cup of languages! |
| Elaine |
The Soaring Price of Gas (Petrol)The reality (LA prices):
What it feels like: 
(Although, I would've replaced "LOL" with "UGH" or "OW!". These prices are no laughing matter.)
Yikes!!!!! What's the price of gas in your area? |
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| André in Zuid-Afrika |
Just gone up to slightly over R10 a litre. That's about one dollar thirty cents in your money, but heavily expensive for us. 
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| David |
Here it's at $3.60 for regular, and rising fast. Andre, if $1.30 for gas is expensive, what is the normal price in South Africa? 
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| André in Zuid-Afrika |
I'm not sure what you mean by the "normal price", we have one price throughout the country, as determined by the government. The price of petrol has risen a lot over the past few months, thanks to the bad management of our dear government. A few months ago, we still paid about R7 a litre, which would be slightly less than a dollar a litre.
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| greg in noord-frankrijk |
I think le prix à la pompe here is something like 1,40 €/l, probably a bit more than 2 $/l. But in France 75 % of the oil price is just taxes.
I guess it's not a price per litre but a price for 3,80 l. So that would be 0,95 $/l = 0,62 €/l, which is a very *cheap* price by French standards (not even 45 % of what French car-drivers pay). |
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| Tiorthan |
I got a 1.45EUR (standard) on my last bill. | ||||
| KSa |
Yes, I think so. In Poland it's 2$/l and we say it's more than twice as much as in the US. |
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| KSa |
In Poland it varies from 1.2-1.4 EUR on avarage. |
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| Elaine |
 Ack! I don't speak metric! So if 1 US gallon = 3.785 liters, and the price of gas is around $4.00 a gallon... am I still paying less to fill up a tank than you all over there in Europe?
Btw, the way you all write your currency amounts confuses the heck out of me! 
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| Joanne |
Hmmm... in New Jersey, it's still $3.45/gallon for regular. I'm in the District of Columbia now, though, and the range is $3.65-$3.70/gallon...
I want to go back to Jersey...
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| KSa |
Interesting, I have NEVER drawn my attention to it! BTW: isn't our way we write currency amounts more logical? 
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| KSa |
What is the percentage of cars run by natural gas in your countries? Here in Poland it was really fashionable to convert cars from petrol-driven to natural gas-driven some 5-10 years ago. I don't know the situation right now but natural gas is not as cheap as it was (it used to be half of the petrol price) and natual gas-driven cars tend to explode more often
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| Rio |
Same in Australia, everyone was converting to gas. I don't drive around because I don't need to but last time it was about $1.40-5 per litre; amazing considering when I started driving in 1994, it was $0.6 per litre.... |
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| Rio |
Btw, your petrol signs look wierd Elaine..  
Wow, back in the good ol' days, 2002: 
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| Uriel |
$3.75 at Chevron for regular unleaded! And the supreme (high octane) was $3.99! Highway robbery! I nearly had a heart attack -- that's the most I've EVER seen on a gas station sign! I know the day is coming when that 3 flips to a 4, but I don't think I'll ever be prepared for it -- I can still remember paying 98 cents a gallon 12 years ago!
Yeah, those .9's after the gas price are bizarre even for us, because generally speaking, there is no real denomination smaller than a cent. In the financial world cents can be divided into mils, but those are imaginary accounting fractions that have no physical counterpart. So in everyday terms, the only time you do see fractions of a cent IS on gas station signs, and they are ALWAYS .9 -- never .6 or .2 or anything like that. So in my opinion they really amount to nothing more than a marketing strategy to make you think you are really paying $3.59, rather than $3.60. (And I am happy to report that the ghetto gas station down the road from Chevron is still priced at $3.59 -- fuck the Techron!) However, I suspect the .9 is really related somehow to the price of a barrel of petroleum, which I hear just hit over $123 a barrel, and is now making it profitable for private citizens to open up long-defunct small wells in such areas as Pennsylvania. Elaine, as far as European numbers go, the whole comma-as-decimal-point always looks weird to me. And the liters-to-gallons conversion is always a headache, too -- I always have to remind myself that you have to multiply their prices by almost 4 to get a rough equivalent, along with having to know what the exchange rate is -- I usually just give up and figure that if it's Euro gas, it must be damned expensive, and leave it at that. Petroleum prices are impacting more than just my car, though. I mean, as a westerner, I live in my car -- everything out west is very far apart and there is no mass transit to speak of -- you will be driving, and driving a lot. But as a buyer of medical supplies, I am also seeing all of my product costs go up, as most of them are made out of plastic and plastics are a petroleum derivative .... there goes my beloved quarterly bonuses, if I don't start scrambling for better deals now! |
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| greg in noord-frankrijk |
Basically if your car's tanking capacity is 50 litres (13,20 gallons), you'll have to pay roughly 70 € to fill up — that's 108 $ approximatively. Out of those 70 €, almost 53 end up in the pockets of the taxman : you pay 17 € (26 $) for driving & at the same time kindly provide Bercy (internal revenue headquarters in Paris) with 53 € (81 $) in fa(s)t cash.
Wikipédia claims there are some 200.000 GPL-equipped cars in France. Oddly enough, the French parc automobile is very small : 36.000.000 (I don't know if that's only households or company cars included). So basically the French GPL rate is around ½ % — not much... |
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| Loic |
Just yesterday at noon, the four major petrol pumps colluded together to raise their prices once again. Talk about a classic oligopolistic situation.
As it stands, the price per litre can run the gamut from S$1.833 (USD 1.222) for diesel to S$2.40 (USD 1.60) for the highest petrol grade. Driving is really becoming a prohibitively onerous thing to do in Singapore. |
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| André in Zuid-Afrika |
One car manufacturer here (I forget which one) recently ran a hilarious ad, in which it advertised the low price on one of its models, saying that: "Now you can afford that tank full of petrol you've been saving for."
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| greg in noord-frankrijk |
In France more and more oil thefts are reported and fishermen are on strike : they want a 0,40 €/l price at the fuel pump garanteed by the State, vs 0,75 €/l now (that's 2,40 $/g vs 4,50 $/g now). I believe Spain, Portugal and Italy are striking too.
Il learnt that Italy is about to resume (or start ?) its nuclear programme. The UK started a policy of facility renovation a few months ago. And, of course, Iran is still implementing its nuclear industry since its refining capacities can't meet its own domestic demand. 
Oil price in euros (9 July 2007 → 26 May 2008) : http://inflation.free.fr/graph/_graph_1an_oil_euro.php 
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| Elaine |
The cost of diesel passed the $5.00 mark. Now all the 18-wheelers that transport our goods are going to jack up their prices to cover the costs. 
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| Uriel |
Well, I have yet to pay $4 per gallon, but today I paid $3.82, and I was on fumes, so filling up took almost $50.
Today I saw a funny sticker that said: Bring back $1.85 a gallon gas and oral sex in the oval office. On a related item, there was also a picture of the Clintons on another one -- his photo was labeled "Never inhaled" and hers was captioned "Never swallowed". I'm kinda bummed that she's out of the running now -- she is exactly the kind of woman I could see holding forth on bills and proposals while an aide crouches under the desk, holding forth on her.... I bet she would even miss a beat! |
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| Elaine |
Ack!!!! Lord have mercy!
The long line to cheap gas (Costco's gas is usually ten cents cheaper than the major companies): 
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| Uriel |
Ten cents cheaper ... which, honestly, would mean I'd save about a buck-fifty at Costco (assuming I had actually broken down and sold my soul for a Costco card, which is another rant entirely) -- not worth sitting in line for!!!!! 
Today I broke the $50 mark -- $54 and change to fill 'er up. |
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| Loic |
The price of oil has fallen below $50 a barrel this week. In real terms, this would mean that crude oil has fallen to 2006 levels. It is now some $100 cheaper per barrel than at its peak in July. And if, as many predict, OPEC fails to settle upon cuts in output quotas, prices should tumble further.
I don't know what to say except to cautiously welcome the fall for now. It'd take some pressure out of household budgets, but on the other hand, plummeting oil prices is a symptom of a sharply worsening world economy: demand for oil is clearly dropping as economic activity stagnates, or slows everywhere. I read somewhere that the price of oil is set to hit $200 per barrel by 2012. I don't know if it's true -it sounds too horrifying to be true. But if it is, it would probably bring cheer to environmentalists who are probably the only people unhappy with falling oil prices. After all, high prices curb appetite for oil and other forms of energy that result in emissions of carbon dioxide. Lower oil prices may probably give a fillip to the anaemic appetite for oil. So much about oil! How much does a litre of petrol cost at your place now? |
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| Elaine |
Around here gas prices have plummeted considerably and now hover at the $2.00 a gallon mark. I think the price of regular unleaded is $1.87 a gallon. Not surprisingly, traffic congestion has reverted to its pre-gas hike intensity. 
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| Loic |
A fall in petrol price is a much welcome relief from my perspective. Yes, like Elaine, I have also seen a noticeable increase in the amount of road traffic after petrol stations conspired to slash price for the umpteenth time last week. I am not complaining for the moment as I am fully aware that such a lull would not last. Oil futures were trading at US$200 per barrel not too long ago and I fully expect prices to hit those dizzying heights in the very near future.
Skyrocketing oil prices this summer though, have suddenly made working in the oil and gas industry a much more mouthwatering prospect. |
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