Petrol in Ballinspittle is only €1.819/lt today. That’s the cheapest I’ve seen in a long time.
After listening to this Planet Money podcast about the cost of gasoline I wonder if we will have expensive petrol and diesel forever? Reason being, it’s unlikely that new oil refineries will ever be built again as demand for oil products plummet in the next decade. A guest on the show predicted that a barrel of oil will be $20-$30 in ten years time.
Electric cars are becoming a lot more attractive, but I won’t be looking to buy a new car for quite some time.
For you, my American reader, there are 3.78541 litres in a US gallon. That means the price of gasoline/petrol here is $6.89/gallon.
Aside from all this, the reduction in oil production will have a detrimental effect on sulphur production. It’s a by-product of that system and used by the metal and fertilizer industries. It’s cheap as chips now, but if there’s a shortage, the price of food will skyrocket.
Yikes. Any good news about the future?
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It is important to compare apples to apples. The petrol in Ireland is a much higher octane than what is typically sold in the US. Regular unleaded in the US is 87 octane, while Ireland is 95. Premium unleaded in the US is 91 octane, while in Ireland it is 98 octane. So, Ireland’s “regular unleaded” is a higher octane than the premium unleaded sold in the US. Virtually all petrol sold in the US has 10% ethanol – I think Ireland recently introduced the E10 to match other European countries which is also 10% ethanol. The past few years E85 or Flex Fuel is becoming more popular as it can be used in all cars manufactured after 2005 – it includes 15% ethanol and is currently the least expensive fuel available in the US if you can find it. This month’s average price in the US for regular unleaded at 87 octane is $3.82 and if you can find E85 or FlexFuel it is averaging $3.05 but premium unleaded at 91 octane is still averaging close to $5. Of course, certain parts of the country are now requiring the use of carbon-neutral mixtures, which significantly increases the price, e.g. in California the average for regular unleaded is $5.90 and premium is over $6.20. Of course, that still doesn’t match your $6.89 but remember your regular unleaded is 3 octane higher than our premium. Having said that the US isn’t waiting for a sulphur shortage to see food prices skyrocket…virtually everything you buy on a regular basis has doubled in price over the last year even from the most discounted outlets such as Walmart. As simple examples: Milk, Cream, and Eggs have all doubled in price compared to last year. The only thing that hasn’t doubled in wages!!