I just paid £70 to fill the car with fuel.

[brewnog]

Yep, £70. For you yanks that's about $140. And it's only a moderate saloon car.

Grrrrrr. Time to start shopping for biodiesel.

 

[Kurdt]

Yep, £70. For you yanks that's about $140. And it's only a moderate saloon car.

Grrrrrr. Time to start shopping for biodiesel.

I spent a similar amount for my mothers Renault Clio. Its insane.

 

[turbo]

You guys got it rough. I paid $3.57/gal to fill my wife's Subaru today and that really pinched. I had to drive about 180 miles today and hoped to run into some lower gas prices in the southern part of the state. No such luck.:grumpy:

 

[Astronuc]

Regular (87 Oct) is $3.73-3.75/gal in our area. It seems that the price increases ~$0.04-0.05 every other day. It will probably reach $4.00 by Memorial day. It would cost me nearly $50.00 to fill up now. Fortunately, I don't drive very much.

 

[wolram]

Time to buy one of these.

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_bikes.html

1000 km on a tankful.

 

[AhmedEzz]

Fortunately, since in my country more than 50% of the population are poor, the government supports gas prices and as crazy as it sounds, gas prices don't go up in here at all...its about 1.30 LE per litre and given that 1$ ~ 5.5LE that means that you can get about 5 litres with one dollar.

 

[turbo]

Time to buy one of these.

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_bikes.html

1000 km on a tankful.

Problem, Woolie. Availability is one, and diesel that is $1 more per gallon than gas.

 

[wolram]

Problem, Woolie. Availability is one, and diesel that is $1 more per gallon than gas.

Errrm, Well, in the UK there are cheaper alternatives for fuel, may be not totally in line with government thinking, and one would have to be a bit Jessie James.

 

[mgb_phys]

There's also this http://marineturbine.com/motorcycles.asp , perhaps not as fuel efficent but it also runs on diesel.

The crazy thing is you still can't buy small cars here!
The smallest VW is a 2.5L engine Golf that does about 20/28 MPG, apparently the 99mpg Lupo diesel doesn't meet US satandards.

 

[Cyrus]

Why is gas so expensive? They are finding more and more reserves all the time.

They found some in Iraq not too long ago, and a bunch more is in Alaska too. Drill it up!

 

[wolram]

Why is gas so expensive? They are finding more and more reserves all the time.

They found some in Iraq not too long ago, and a bunch more is in Alaska too.

One of our major refineries just closed through strike action, some are finding it tough to find petrol.

 

[Cyrus]

Whats a strike have to do with finding crude oil?

 

[wolram]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7047128.stm

Us Brits could use this stuff.

Cyrus, even when they find it some silly Bs put a spanner in the works and make things even harder.

 

[Astronuc]

Whats a strike have to do with finding crude oil?

It has to do with producing - not finding.


Production keeps getting interrupted in Nigeria, North Sea, etc. Some folks fired on a Japanese tanker near the Persian Gulf.

Besides there are all those middle men who need to collect their money for doing nothing but buying and selling on speculation. It's called the commodities market.

 

[scorpa]

I just paid 65 bucks to fill my car which still had an eighth of a tank left :( Won't be able to afford to drive before long! Good think I walk/bike everywhere I can, and only drive when I have to. Gas is $1.25 per litre :( and they are talking it might hit a buck 40 in a few weeks.

 

[f95toli]

Why is gas so expensive? They are finding more and more reserves all the time.

People in China and India are buying cars. So while there there is still oil the demand has increased dramatically over the past few years.
Moreover, oil-producing countries are not interested in selling as much oil as possible. They know that they have a limited supply and it would be stupid of them to sell it all now, especially since they know that the price will continue to rise.

 

[turbo]

I've put my Softail (45 mpg) up for sale for $12,500 and hope to get out of paying high excise taxes every year at registration, and high insurance. Since I don't have many riding buddies left, I think I'll buy a used Buell Blast (70 mpg) for about $2000 and save some bucks and have a light little thumper to zoom around on. The color of these bikes is molded into the plastic, so lots of gravel/sand damage and scratches can be buffed out and I won't mind taking it on gravel roads.

 

[JasonRox]

You can buy a scooter. Get a 50cc model and you can get 90-110mpg!

 

[Moonbear]

You can buy a scooter. Get a 50cc model and you can get 90-110mpg!

We may all be riding those soon. It would be ideal for my commute (and just take out the car for bad weather days) since it's a bikeable distance, but not bikeable roads. Do those things coast downhill (half my trip is downhill ).

 

[Kurdt]

Downhills are useful since modern petrol engines use no fuel if you coast in gear.

 

[Moonbear]

Downhills are useful since modern petrol engines use no fuel if you coast in gear.

It's the steep uphills that kill me though.

 

[Integral]

YIKES! When Euopeans start complaining about gas prices you know it it is getting bad.

 

[edward]

Supposedly gasoline prices are high because of a shortage of crude, yet I have not seen a single station that was out of gas.

 

[OmCheeto]

Supposedly gasoline prices are high because of a shortage of crude, yet I have not seen a single station that was out of gas.

I have a 5 part hybrid idea that will get us all 200 mpg if you are all willing to send me $3 a piece?

The cars only weigh about 500 lbs apiece, but are quite dry in monsoons.

And they float!

sorry...

 

[Moonbear]

I have a 5 part hybrid idea that will get us all 200 mpg if you are all willing to send me $3 a piece?

The cars only weigh about 500 lbs apiece, but are quite dry in monsoons.

And they float!

sorry...

What is it? A rowboat?

 

[Evo]

I used to date a guy that owned a small oil company, he used to tease me telling me how he was raking in the cash hand over fist every time the price of crude went up. He also owns a silver mine in South America, and a bank. Hmmmmm, where is his number...

 

[OmCheeto]

What is it? A rowboat?

Ummm... So far. Yes. Do you have $3 to spare?

If not. Well... Do you know 6.659 billion suckers?

 

[wildman]

Why is gas so expensive? They are finding more and more reserves all the time.

They found some in Iraq not too long ago, and a bunch more is in Alaska too. Drill it up!

In the free world, most of the easy to find oil has already been pumped. Even the ANWR has only an estimated 16 billion barrels. This is only 2 years supply. The reserves that are being found keep getting smaller and smaller or more and more difficult to pump. There has been some nice discoveries recently in North Dakota, but while large, it is very expensive oil and how much net energy will be produced is questionable.

The Middle East and Russia still have a lot of oil, but they don't want to give it away anymore.

 

[bassplayer142]

Gas is absurd. In Alaska which is a beautifully cheap and wise purchase on Americas part has tons of gas. As far as I'm concerned they have more then you think and most of it is for military use if things ever got bad enough in the other parts of the world. Imagine America fighting a war if no country sells us any gas, we need the reserves!

 

[Art]

Brazil recently announced what could be the biggest oil find in the past 30 years

Brazil Oil Field Could Be Huge Find

By ALAN CLENDENNING – Apr 14, 2008

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) — A deep-water exploration area off Brazil's coast could contain as much as 33 billion barrels of oil, the head of Brazil's National Petroleum Agency said Monday. That would make it the world's third-largest known oil reserve..

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jjfzogTbuKqVbYSPLPvAodaTOUyAD901P5P00

On a separate note one wonders how much the current price of oil is being fueled by all the talk of alternative clean fuels. It seems plausible that the oil producing countries and oil companies are raking in as much as they can before their product becomes obsolete.

 

[Moonbear]

Gas is absurd. In Alaska which is a beautifully cheap and wise purchase on Americas part has tons of gas. As far as I'm concerned they have more then you think and most of it is for military use if things ever got bad enough in the other parts of the world. Imagine America fighting a war if no country sells us any gas, we need the reserves!

That's a good point, that nobody is going to want to tap into their reserves when they can still get it from somewhere else. Better to get people to start changing their habits with prices climbing than to just start using up the reserves. Even if we do have to start tapping reserves, you want to be sure people have learned to conserve as much as possible before you start to do it so they can stretch as long as possible.

On a separate note one wonders how much the current price of oil is being fueled by all the talk of alternative clean fuels. It seems plausible that the oil producing countries and oil companies are raking in as much as they can before their product becomes obsolete.

I think that's also a reasonable assumption. I think it's also why companies like Exxon are buying up these clean energy technologies, partly so they still have a business when demand switches from fossil fuels to clean energy, and partly so they can control the timing of its release. If they own the patents/exclusive licenses, nobody else can start selling it before they're done squeezing every drop of profit they can get from oil. It's the same tactic pharmaceutical companies will use to buy up an exclusive license on a potential competing product and hold onto it until their product goes generic, then release the new money-maker.

 

[Astronuc]

Oil Price Rise Fails to Open Tap
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/business/worldbusiness/29oil.html

As oil prices soared to record levels in recent years, basic economics suggested that consumption would fall and supplies would rise as producers drilled for more oil.

But as prices flirt with $120 a barrel, many energy experts are becoming worried that neither seems to be happening. Higher prices have done little to suppress global demand or attract new production, and the resulting mismatch has sent oil prices ever higher.

That has translated into more pain at the pump, with gasoline setting a fresh record of $3.60 a gallon nationwide on Monday. Experts expect prices above $4 a gallon this summer, and one analyst recently predicted that gasoline could reach $7 in the next four years.

A central reason that oil supplies are not rising much is that major producers outside the OPEC cartel, like Russia, Mexico and Norway, are showing troubling signs of sluggishness. Unlike OPEC, whose explicit goal is to regulate the supply of oil to keep prices up, these countries are the free traders of the oil market, with every incentive to produce flat-out at a time of high prices.

It would seem the oil producers are hold back letting demand keep ahead of supply, which will keep a steady upward pressure on oil prices. Why should they produce more when they can just sit back and rake in the money? Brasil's new find will take several years to develop.

 

[wolram]

In the mean time that fat slug Gordon Brown is making sure the government in the UK is raking in vast sums of extra VAT out of our misery, and oil companies are whistling to the bank, if i had my way Browns testicles would be extracted, if he has any.

 

[turbo]

I just got back from getting my truck inspected. I should have filled the tank yesterday when gas was $3.57 because today it was $3.61. Four cents in one day and every single gas station in town is in lock-step with the price.

 

[Moonbear]

Oil Price Rise Fails to Open Tap
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/business/worldbusiness/29oil.html

It would seem the oil producers are hold back letting demand keep ahead of supply, which will keep a steady upward pressure on oil prices. Why should they produce more when they can just sit back and rake in the money? Brasil's new find will take several years to develop.

Yep, if they just sit on it, let the prices keep climbing, and then start selling when there are lines around the block waiting for the rationed 5 gallons of gas/vehicle at $7/gallon (and before people send their cars to the junkyard and buy bicycles), they stand to reap in huge profits for their nations...why wouldn't they try to do that?