Petrol price action

[JVL]

We might hold the current record for highest 95E-gas price: 2,79$ per litre(somewhere in north, not so high here though). I'm happy I don't own a car!

[Robert Vermaat]

I walk 5 mins to my work and shop at LIDL for years now. Surprising how you can save €600 a month just on basic shopping. :wink:

But then, my wife cannot work anymore so it's not something we chose out of ideology or something.

Oil prices WILL rise. I saw some documentaries YEARS ago that foretold exactly this scenario. But hey, nobody wants to hear it and at the time they all laughed. I advised people as long as 7 years ago that if they wanted an intercontinental holiday, the time to take it would be soon.. And now we see airline tickets in a steep rise after years of being cheap, and petrol getting more and more pricey. But maybe alternative fuel will save us?

Of course, governments will in time have to cut fuel taxes, before fuel prices will start to hurt the economy. But will that be enough? My prediction is that oil prices will continue their way for the time being. Oil may well become 600% more costly over the next two years, as demand will continue to rise, and production will soon start dropping worldwide. It has been predicted.

Personally I worry more about world food prices, which has already affected the feeding pattern of my office collegues... :wink:

[M. Demetrius]

Well said, Robert, and the increase in food prices has been assisted by the increase in fuel. Fuel is used to plant, maintain, harvest and transport food, as well as store it in the markets, so it's predictable.

[Tiberius Clodius Corvinus]

Personally I worry more about world food prices, which has already affected the feeding pattern of my office collegues... :wink:

:lol: ... sounds, as if you would think, this wasnt a bad thing ;-) )

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Actually, the search for alternatives has helped spur the rise in food prices, as crops are diverted from the food chain, into Bio-Fuels.... :roll:

[M. Demetrius]

True enough, GJC. For some reason in the US, they are using corn (you probably call it maize) to make ethanol, but sugar cane is a much better source. I'm not sure the motivation, but if I won the lottery, I'd buy land in S. Texas and plant sugar cane and build a small plant to convert it to ethanol, and sell it to the fuel producers. Ought to be able to undercut the corn-source price.

Anyway, I saw diesel for sale today for 4.50 USD per gallon. Once upon a time, diesel was half the price of gasoline. Now it's more expensive. Must be a reason somewhere, but I am not an oil production exec/accountant, so I don't know what provoked the change. Those fuel expenses have to be passed on to the people receiving the boxes. Even UPS has a "fuel surcharge" fee put on each parcel shipped. Oh, well. We pay or we walk. It's still cheaper to send a box than to hand deliver it 1000 miles away.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

True enough, GJC. For some reason in the US, they are using corn (you probably call it maize) to make ethanol, but sugar cane is a much better source. I'm not sure the motivation, but if I won the lottery, I'd buy land in S. Texas and plant sugar cane and build a small plant to convert it to ethanol, and sell it to the fuel producers. Ought to be able to undercut the corn-source price.

Anyway, I saw diesel for sale today for 4.50 USD per gallon. Once upon a time, diesel was half the price of gasoline. Now it's more expensive. Must be a reason somewhere, but I am not an oil production exec/accountant, so I don't know what provoked the change. Those fuel expenses have to be passed on to the people receiving the boxes. Even UPS has a "fuel surcharge" fee put on each parcel shipped. Oh, well. We pay or we walk. It's still cheaper to send a box than to hand deliver it 1000 miles away.

Well, I'm a 'corn caller ' too! I think in Brazil they use sugar cane sourced fuel, but I could be wrong there. Personally, I wish they would design my recycling Hydrogen engine........problem solved!

And that detail about diesel threw me too! I always thought it was cheaper too, until the rental company snuck a Volvo Diesel on me.... hock: hock: Talk about shit happening in threes!! :roll:

[jsantell]

In the US we are feeling the pinch. My big question is , how do people in China and India afford gas when they make so much less per hour than we do?

[Magnus]

Good question.

You know guys...this is unconfirmed, but someone told me that the plants used to refine the corn into ethanol polute worse or at least as bad as the current petroleum fuel plants.

I still say water power is our best bet...

[M. Demetrius]

A huge percentage of electricity outside the US is generated by nuclear power plants. I'm not so sure that isn't the direction to look. It's been working for over 50 yrs, and only one big disaster, which should have been avoided, and was certainly avoidable (Chernobyl). I wonder how many people died in oil production/refining in the same 50 years?

I may be at the threshhold...somebody stop me...

[Memmia]

I agree, Demetrius.Nuclear power is a very possible way ahead and in the long run, much greener. Although at the moment, nuclear energy is a useful but highly dangerous beast that we haven't domesticated yet. Plus, there's also the problem of what to with it's very dodgy faeces :wink: :lol:

[M. Demetrius]

Load the waste products onto a retasked ICBM and launch it in a direct path to the sun. Once it gets part of the way, it will accelerate via gravitational attraction, and vaporize safely.

A mishap on the launch pad would be kind of messy, though.

[Tarbicus]

In the US we are feeling the pinch. My big question is , how do people in China and India afford gas when they make so much less per hour than we do?

They're expected to be hit badly and probably see an economic slowdown, as well as a necessary increase in their prices which would add to their problems. Or so I've read.

[Robert Vermaat]

The best way forward is not biofuels in the long run, but solar power, wind power, non-fosssil fule powered engines, plus cutting energy use in a big way!
Research is only now starting in a big way to look at better alternatives - wish they had ten years ago!
How about 'harvesting' the methane from the ocean beds? Engines can run on methane, plus if the stuff is getting into our atmosphere (and it looks like it has begun to do so, bubbling up due to rising temperatures), it's an agent that way outclasses the effects of 'our' CO2 as a greenhouse gas!! hock:

No need to remind you that all of us on this forum live during the most luxurious period in the history of mankind! Remember these times my friends, because there is a distinct possibility that our children (like our parents during the 1950s and 60s) will experience leaner times.

[Robert Vermaat]

In the US we are feeling the pinch. My big question is , how do people in China and India afford gas when they make so much less per hour than we do?

They're expected to be hit badly and probably see an economic slowdown, as well as a necessary increase in their prices which would add to their problems. Or so I've read.

China just raised fuel prices by 18%. of course, that means fuel is still ssubsidied and very cheap, but it's an indication of things to come, I assume. If large ships cannot steam from Asia with cheap goods for a very low travel cost, things will change in global economics.