UK petrol crisis deepens - prices hit £10 per gallon

[Mark R]

After 3 days of protests outside oil refineries and fuel distribution depots, a severe shortage of fuel is beginning to take hold in Wales and the North-West. Areas of the South-West are expected to run dry tomorrow. New protests in Scotland started today, and fuel is already running out in some areas.

In those areas heaviest hit, those few garages that have any fuel left are charging up to £10 per gallon, simply in order to stay open, because they know that if the protests continue they will have to close until the protests disperse.

The protests come after the recent rise in crude oil prices, coupled with the UK's high rate of fuel tax, brought prices to over £4 per gallon in most of the country. Despite the tax being related the the raw cost of the fuel, and the government set to see an extra £4 billion from this alone, they remain steadfastly refusing to cut fuel tax - tax which has been regularly increased by up to 10% above inflation every year. Despite having the lowest fuel cost in Europe before tax, the UK has the highest fuel cost, after tax.

Protesters refuse to stand down, until the government promises to reduce tax. Despite the enormous disuption, the majority of the public seem to be supportive.

 

[syber321]

Wow...that is getting pretty bad. And I thought that the cost of gas was getting crazy in the states...

 

[DaBoneHead]

One thing all you SUX, er SUVers...

Dont buy one. If you are thinking about buying an SUV, don't! Lease it.

Lets all face it, fossil fuels are going to become outrageously expensive, since every year we have less of them.

The days of 5$ - 7$ a gallon gas isn't all that too far off in the future. Maybe as early as 5 years from now.

So why don't buy? If you like a car, you usually keep it for 5-8 years, and then sometimes longer. At 5-7$ a gallon, a vehicle getting 14-18 mpg will have no resale value. Therefore, it is a *real* bad investment. Of course if you lease... it was the leasing companies bad investment!

Just an FYI. Me, I'm buying a horse...

P.S. I like the old smiley faces better...

 

[Mem]

I think we have the most expensive fuel prices in the world(lucky I sold my car years ago)anyway this protest is getting bigger everyday,it`s starting to effect all the emergency services(which is bad) but who knows what`s going to happen next.

 

[nickdakick]

Just to give US residents an impression: In Germany 1 liter of super is now 2 DM+ which equals $2 in purchasing power. That's all time suck destined for the hall of fame of sucks. :|

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

So what's that ten in U.S. Dollars?

 

[nickdakick]

IMO that's per barrel and about $30. Highest prices since the oil crisis in the 70's BTW.

 

[Chooie]

That's $14.21 per liter, or $53.79 per gallon. I'd say this is fucking ridiculous :|

[edit] sorry, thought Mark R's post said liter... but that's still something to think about.

 

[M87]

I live in the UK i'm sick of all the high taxes...$1.60 to £1.00

 

[Mem]

LOL.. we need another civil war that will sort this problem out.

 

[BiB]

dabonhead is right, people who think fuel prices are going to go down are wrong - sure they might dip a bit, but generally prices are going to remain steady or rise. 6 years ago I got my license and I remember paying $.47 CAN per litre. Its now costing $.82/litre for self-serve in the same city. I've gotten used to it, it sucks, but its not going to go down. People buying a lincoln navigator now are going to be quite unhappy if they keep it in several years. I would personally guess than in 5 years fuel could easily be costing me $1.20 or $1.30 a litre.

And do we need to move around all this f**king metal anyway? Why the hell are people commuting to work in SUV's anyway? I can understand getting a V8 to power your mustang at high-speeds but getting it to compensate the fact your vehicle weighs a million tons is totally unecessary. What a total goddamn waste of an ireplacable resource

BiB

 

[Chooie]

SUV's could be as light as cars, but that's not the way we expect them to be. We expect a truck based vehicle, with literally tons of steel involved in the manufacture. If we changed the construction to include magnesium and titanium, these vehicles could shave off 2,000lb easily, with the only drawback being the price increase. I've seen Jeeps rebuilt with tubular frames that weigh only 2,000lb, and these are steel. Imagine what would happen if we used lighter materials.

 

[lupin]

More SUVs out there means = more gas consumption. So the biggest disadvantage to us is prices will go up faster. It's not just SUV having no resale point in the future.

BTW,
you want to shave off 2000lb from a Jeep??? How the F*ck are you going to do that??

As far as I remember, the Modena is the only car that has extensive use of expensive lightweight material, and it still weighs ~ 3000lb.

If you want to cut off 2000 lb from a Jeep, you'll pay at least $150,000 for it.

 

[Chooie]

It was a tubular frame, the I-6, wheels, and a seat My point is, the people who really utilize their vehicles to their full potential are usually the same crazy ones who strip them bare for better performance/articulation/whatever

 

[Mark R]

Update: On a recent survey of filling stations within walking distance (West Cambridge) I found that 5 out of 6 have no fuel at all. The remaining 1 has 2 pumps operating, but the only fuel available is lead-replacement petrol - unsuitable for cars with catalytic converters.

According to news reports, over 4000 filling stations out of 5500 run by major chains are closed, and nearly 70% of the population has no access to fuel.

Tony Blair still remains adamant that he will not reduce fuel prices.

 

[Mem]

Latest update fuel stations in London are more or less empty all fuel stations round my way are empty(south east London) my friends lives East London same there ,drivers are trying outside London but even there it`s bad ,btw heard some one got stabbed with a knife over at a fuel station that had fuel.

 

[IBhacknU]

Tony Blair should be shot for raising the taxes.

 

[Haircut]

One of my flatmates has just got back from his job at the petrol station. His is the only place in Nottingham that has anything at all, and apparently there were 1 mile long queues outside and the police had to be called at one point to stop fighting on the forecourt as people were pushing in the queue and other people were getting very angry.

 

[Swag1138]

Somebody needs to come up with a car that runs on flatulation gas. I could run an suv for pennies a tank

BTW: I feel sorry for people silly minded enough to own SUVs/Vans/Trucks. All I can really say though, is you get what you deserve, you bunch of soccer-mom silly people.

 

[JellyBaby]

I really feel bad for you folks in the UK. The US news is reporting your situation and it stinks. Here in the states, the feds won't reduce or eliminate gas taxes (most were supposed to be temporary to begin with, right?). They won't release any emergency reserves (probably a good move but they should if things get much worse). And throughout the Clinton years we've cut back on domestic oil production so OPEC calls the shots. And where's Albert Bore the "environmentalist" in all this? At fundraisers or making pretty speechs or doing a commercial in the format of an Oprah Winfall show.

Anyway I hope you all in the UK don't suffer too long from this.

 

[downhiller80]

well typically we pay 80p a litre at the moment and I think in the states it's nearer 30p per liter, so yeah it does stink!

I managed to get a tankful of unleaded at normal prices today so I'm happy. I'm just gonna let the car sit in the garage for a week and then race my mate around the back streets of london when no-ones on 'em!

Seb

 

[sandorski]

Sorry to hear of the problems in the UK, but this just shows how fragile of a civilization that the western world is. As long as oil is the primary form of fuel, western nations are at the mercy of OPEC. The first sign occurred in the early 70's and since that time our consumption as well as dependence on OPEC oil has increased. It's time for politicians to stand up to the oil corps(or at least not jump everytime) and accelerate R&D into alternate fuels, pass stricter fuel consumption laws(the "marketplace" is failing western nations as a source of security), and bring sanity back into energy policies.

Much more of this crisis crap and we'll start to see attempts to militarize the situation, and that is a slippery slope indeed.

 

[yakawictz]

Time to buy oil shale stocks...