Diesel Cost the Future for Campervans.

[John]

John :grin:

 

[GeoffB]

Like it!

Anyone know why this country seems to be the only one in Europe where diesel costs more than petrol? It wasn't always that way. Another big business rip-off?

 

[calikev]

Supply and demand I'm afraid Everybody changed to diesel a few years ago because it was cheaper and you could get further on a gallon. Now I think people are buying small petrol cars again so maybe just maybe it will be reversed.

 

[Fin]

My understanding from hearing discussion such as this on the radio it is that we simply do not have the storage capacity for diesel. As Calikev states we have moved from predominantly driving petrol vehicles to a shift across to diesel vehicles unfortunately I understand that we only have about 8-10 refineries in the UK and the capacity for diesel storage is unable to keep up with the demand for diesel vehicles. Not sure if this is likely to change in the future but would be good if things did improve, I always try to fill up on the continent before returning home. I know from driving through there a couple of years ago that Luxembourg is a great place to travel through to fill up as it is so, so cheap and worth a minor detour to fill up if in the vicinity.

 

[Andy]

Yes Fin is correct. We produce more unleaded than we consume but less diesil. This means that excess unleaded is exported & the extra deisil is imported resulting in more expensive diesil.
Unfortunately the refineries can not change production to diesil & back to unleaded when required.
Also the tax regime is different in Europe.

 

[John]

I came across a interesting article about the cost of diesel in Money Morning a email sent out daily by Money Week.

They are saying Its not the fact that diesel cost more, it is the fact that the pound is being devalued. So you can blame QE1 and QE2 and the greed that caused it. I have copied in the relevant parts of the article as it makes a interesting read.

John

Why is the diesel price so high?

The bottom line is that – regardless of what fuel you’re using – it has become very expensive to fill up your tank. I’m not sure people really mind that diesel is more expensive than petrol – they just mind the fact that both are expensive. And both, ultimately, are driven by the price of oil.

Oil prices have rocketed – measured in pounds sterling, at least

If you look at a chart of oil since 1999, and ignore the speculative excess of 2008, the broader trend is not hard to see. Oil, whether crude or heating, is in a long-term bull market.

This bull market is partly driven by declining supplies and increased demand. Global oil production peaked in May 2005 and despite the higher price, this level of production has not been matched.

The fact that companies are now having to drill miles under the sea or in other undesirable locations, suggests that the easy–to–find ‘cheap’ stuff has long since been found. There may be something to this peak oil business after all.

But even this can’t account for the whole story. After all, the supply of oil has not fallen by that much. A few percent maybe. The real difference is in the supply of money – which has rocketed.

The price fluctuates, yes. It should. That is normal. But there has been nothing like the same range of movement as with pounds, where oil has enjoyed that 1,300% move. How much easier would it be to plan and run a business, a home or indeed an economy, with a more stable money such as this?

I have no doubt that oil companies, petrol stations, refineries and any other company operating in the diesel market are all trying to make as much money out of you as they can. But there’s only so much they can charge before the customer goes elsewhere.

The real reason the diesel price is so unaffordable is that modern money is being systematically debased to bail out the profligate, be it the government, the banks or anyone else who has spent more than they can afford.

And you can brace yourself for more of the same. :headwall

 

[Anonymous]

There is also the politics and hard nosed business of it all.

If we all switched to more fuel efficient diesel engines, we would travel further on a gallon. Therefore we would buy less fuel, and it would then follow that the governement gets less tax - particularly as so much of the cost is in Duty.

If we used half the fuel, the tax take halves.

Now HMT will say "you don't want to do that- even if it is greener" and will then increase the Duty to try and recover the same cash amount from less fuel.

Cynic? Moi? :headwall