What are petrol prices doing with you?

[3xpendable]

In the USA, it reached over $5/gal on average last week. Regular is about $5.05 where I am, and premium is about $5.70 and it's gone up about 50 cents a gallon in the last week alone.

Some family came to visit last month and in the 2 weeks they were gone they said it went up 7.9p/litre. So what is it about, about 1.80 a litre there?

I'm glad I don't commute much, my Dodge Durango had its first ever over $100 fill up last week. I don;t know if it's hitting the UK as hard as we are always used to expensive petrol but here people re really feeling the pinch and making a lot less journeys because of it.

For perspective, 2 years about I could get premium gas for $1.89 a gallon, it's about 2.5x more expensive now.

[suffolkpete]

Filled up with Super at Tesco at £1.83 per litre, regular is £1.74 (at time of writing) Doesn't seem to have affected the amount of traffic though.

[JPB]

Premium (E10 95RON) is currently £1.76 per Litre at the local Asda, but to put this into context; when I collected my Dolomite from the vendor's home in Dartford back in October 2008, I filled up at an Asda there prior to making the 360ish mile run home. I remember being concerned that the equivalent unleaded there, though without the currently inevitable extra helpings of ethanol, was charged at £1.41 per litre. So could it not in fact be argued that the price of petrol has in fact increased at below the average inflation rate between then and now?
When I was 16 years of age, I did a bit of part time work in the forecourt shop at an expensive (compared to the ones in towns) fuel station right by the side of the A1, just north of Berwick. I can still see the disappointment on the passing motorists' faces when they realised that we were charging £2 per gallon for four star. That seems very cheap by today's standards.

I also remember putting three gallons of leaded 4 star in the tank of my Morris Oxford - RIP, 4388DG - on the forecourt of Barker's, most likely now replaced by a block of flats or a fast food outlet, in the centre of Windsor, this would have been in 1988 or 1989. That three gallon dose of the then still easily available leaded fuel used to cost a penny or two either side of five pounds!

[3xpendable]

So could it not in fact be argued that the price of petrol has in fact increased at below the average inflation rate between then and now?

It's a very good point. As I said in my first post there has been a dramatic rise in the price of petrol in the last 6 months but when you compare it to the relative price in the 70's then up until recently, it is actually cheaper.

I think there are 2 things at play here:

1. Oil companies are making up for lost revenue during the Pandemic
2. As electrification becomes more prevalent, oil demand will go down so maybe they are trying for one last hurrah?