Fuel Price
- Thread starter Russell Hall
- Start date
What about one of these Canadian bad boys.
60km range, free rego in QLD. Not sure how the 13kph top speed would go on the M1 however?
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Well people might need it. A temporary respite in fuel prices, a cut in excise (only half went on roads anyway) and a few overseas factors reducing the oil price. But the IEA is still warning of a looming energy supply crunch and advocating drastic measures like car free Sundays.
How will we get to church?
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We're back around 1954 in car availability but if negotiations on an acceptable form of payment for EU energy imports fall through it'll be 1947 for more than cars. My mother kept her ration coupons for years on the theory "you never know".
On a wing and a prayer?
Maybe time to dig out the gas producer from the back of the shed, mount it on the towbar and fire it up again?
I have a rabbit fumigator that would make a fine gas digester.
Now the last time we had fuel shortages country folk had the advantage of power kerosene, not subject to rationing for farm use and not to be used on the road. A pre-war 6.5 to 1 compression engine would run on it but no amount of coaxing would make them start. So a clever motorist made a contraption to allow a little of the precious rationed petrol through to start. And then when driving through a town leaving a tell tale blue haze in your wake you could switch to petrol if a policeman was standing in the road. I wonder how high stressed euro engines would cope with fuel that wouldn't make 60 octane.
In the early 1950's Dad ran his BSA Gold Star 500 on petrol for a week each month on his 120 mile daily round trip to work as that was all the Ration coupon allowed him. The rest of the month was run on kero, using the following cheats. Amazingly, Shell lighter fluid was available everywhere in little tins with a plastic spout. Everyone smoked back then and most had a cigarette lighter! Dad would fill the tank with kero, open the top of the Amal carby, fill it with lighter fluid and hope like crazy the bike would start on the first kick and get hot enough to run on kero by the time the carby ran out of the lighter fluid and the fuel tap was turned on. The bike was kept inside during the winter with an electric heater under the sump to help. I can remember him coming home in the evening with the cylinder barrel glowing red! Didn't seem to bother the Beeza.
If you want to see what life without diesel looks like take a look at Sri Lanka which ran out today.
There is a situation developing in European trade that if it spreads to oil will impact our fuel supplies and prices. Russia has demanded that gas be paid for in roubles rather than frozen euros. A deadline has been set for April 1 when existing contracts will be viewed as voided. The effect on Australia will be two fold. Europe will be under recessionary pressure and delivery delays on German cars and equipment will be longer. France is less dependent on Russian gas. Australia already has its own gas shortage looming as our plentiful west coast gas supplies that were almost gifted to the Americans are shipped overseas. This will increase the likelihood of soaring gas prices and shortages in Australia and undermine attempts to use our gas to produce fertiliser for our own needs in WA.
If the demand for payment in roubles spreads to oil Europe will be looking for supplies from the places that supply us. For some reason the output of diesel from western refineries is inadequate. Britain imports 65% and Europe 50% of refined distillate from Russia. America often has seasonal diesel shortages and imports from Russia. So apart from the rise in oil prices we will be more exposed to actual shortages of diesel. Compromise may still be possible but at the moment both sides seem to have fixed positions.
If the demand for payment in roubles spreads to oil Europe will be looking for supplies from the places that supply us. For some reason the output of diesel from western refineries is inadequate. Britain imports 65% and Europe 50% of refined distillate from Russia. America often has seasonal diesel shortages and imports from Russia. So apart from the rise in oil prices we will be more exposed to actual shortages of diesel. Compromise may still be possible but at the moment both sides seem to have fixed positions.
Just returned from an 18 day Holiday in Tasmania (well I worked most of the time doing renovations for my daughter) but didn't do too much driving and sight seeing as we usually do, Tassie is a bit nervous about Covid and it seems to have a lot "going around" and our daughter insisted on us old folks wearing the best class of mask (Masks are required on the Spirit of Tasmania Ferry) with the high price of Diesel we filled up at Costco at $167.7 a litre before travelling, and I topped the tank up in Launceston at over $208 something a litre but their receipt didn't print properly, anyway it was said to be the cheapest fuel outlet!! Only took $43 to fill just before the excise tax was cut by 22 cents a litre in the lead up to the Federal Election. I filled it again a week after we returned again at Costco and even with the excise cut it was $176.7 a litre for Diesel I noted that ULP was $154.9 and 98 RON was $168.7 cents a litre.
Haven't really had much time looking around yet to compare prices City and Country. Can't see fuel returning to a low price even with the excise cut. The last time excise was cut by five cents, the oil companies raised their prices and absorbed the effect.
Hope everyone anywhere in Australia, City or Country is benefitting from lower pricing due to the excise cut. But once the election is over my guess is we will be back to extraordinary pricing and some gouging where they can.
PS Edit Hawthorn won against Geelong today, my good lady and son were delighted. Now if Essendon can get going...
Ken
Haven't really had much time looking around yet to compare prices City and Country. Can't see fuel returning to a low price even with the excise cut. The last time excise was cut by five cents, the oil companies raised their prices and absorbed the effect.
Hope everyone anywhere in Australia, City or Country is benefitting from lower pricing due to the excise cut. But once the election is over my guess is we will be back to extraordinary pricing and some gouging where they can.
PS Edit Hawthorn won against Geelong today, my good lady and son were delighted. Now if Essendon can get going...
Ken
By bus. Seriously, the local bus company ran a bus to and from the Catholic church on a Sunday morning when I was a kid, timed for the beginning and end of the service. And this was in (at the time) outer suburban Brisbane
Drove past a 7-11 a few days ago and fuel prices were 189.9 cents per litre for ULP, 209.9 for98 RON and 159.9 for Special ? Diesel, happy to see that Diesel is still cheaper, but I wonder how long till the Diesel Haters get control and jack that price up.
Last months diesel bill was $2.10 a litre, but we get a refund for the excise anyway. America has low stocks of distillate but that's not unusual. Huge demand for diesel now the crops are going in, best seasons in the Wimmera and Mallee for a century.
No transparency on pricing, nobody knows how the oil companies arrive at their price..
No transparency on pricing, nobody knows how the oil companies arrive at their price..
What they think the market will bear and the number of available excuses to cover their backsides, and they have ample international things they can use Russell.
Hope those bumper crops pan out as I think with the grain uncertainty with the Ukraine crops they will be needed somewhere in the World. Did you see the TV interview with the Ukraine farmer that had his Farm machinery stolen by the Russian troops?, he apparently had tracking tags on the machinery and tracked the missing machinery to Chechnya. Marvels of modern internet you can track it but of course no chance of recovery, so he was giving up and getting his family out of the War zone. Bloody Russians way of wrecking any chance of economic recovery by way of agriculture..... Their spoils of war, probably their way of making up for the ukrainian farmers towing away those tanks earlier.
I note that many imported products have gone up here in the supermarkets, our coffee went from $14.99 to now $20 for a three pound tin (Costco) and in the Supermarkets the average jump seems to be $1 an item and we can expect that to rise due to the "challenges in the Supply chain" Noted at Coles, toilet paper and so forth supplies were low over the weekend maybe sign of things to come.
Ken