Gas prices have been a major source of whinge material here
forever. Usually when you look closely it's just Americans who feel
entitled to cheap gas because they grew up in an era of cheap gas. So I
got to wondering. Is what we're paying really all that bad? As usual I
don't think it is. When you look at it worldwide we're actually paying a
bit less than the current average.

"The cost of crude oil is the largest component of the retail price of
gasoline or petrol. Recently, the price of WTI crude oil has been
$120-$121 a barrel. In the worldwide oil industry, an oil barrel is
defined as 42 U.S. gallons, which is about 159 liters. This calculates
the price of crude oil to $0.75-$0.76 per liter. Taxes and subsidies,
cost of refining and transporting, commission, etc., are included in
retail price.

The average price of gasoline around the world is 1.29 U.S. Dollars per
liter. As a general rule, richer countries have higher prices while
poorer countries and the countries that produce and export oil have significantly lower prices. The differences in prices across countries
are mainly due to the various taxes and subsidies for gasoline. All
countries have access to the same petroleum prices of international
markets but then decide to impose different taxes.

Out of the 170 countries/regions listed, 45 have a price below 1 USD
dollar. Seventy-four have between $1.00-$1.50, 25 have between
$1.50-$2.00, and 26 have over $2. Prices are as per the date 07 Mar 2022.

Venezuela has the cheapest price, just $0.03 per liter, followed by
Libya ($0.03) and Iran ($0.05). Among the top ten cheapest, four
countries are located in Asia and Africa each, and one each in South
America in Europe. Hong Kong has the most expensive price of $2.83,
followed by Norway.

Qatar is among the top 10 richest economies but has low gasoline price
below $1. Prices are high in European nations as only four countries
have less than one dollar. Russia has the lowest rate in Europe. 43 out
of 47 European countries have a price above $1. This figure is 21 out of
40 in Asia, 12 out of 43 in Africa, 3 out of 24 in North America, 7 out
of 12 in South America and 0 out of 4 in Oceania"

https://statisticstimes.com/economy/countries-by-petrol-prices-and-gdp-per-capita.php

They have a map, and a list. According to these guys we were
paying the same price as the Ukrainians earlier this month--$1.18 per liter.

I think it's humorous that our recent example of shortages,
Venezuela, has the cheapest gas. The whole family could fuel up a whole
fleet of Prevosts and drive across the country. lol

One of the interesting things about the current situation is that
most of the gas producing nations don't like high prices because they
figure that will push us into electric vehicles faster. I think they underestimate how fond we are of our dino fuel monsters here.

TB

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