Petrol prices on the up again

[MotherBear]

Petrol just got more expensive
5:00AM Saturday January 05, 2008
By Maria Slade

Oil industry rebel Gull Petroleum looks set to do a brisk trade this weekend, as the only fuel retailer not to raise its prices in the latest round of increases.

While Caltex, Mobil, BP and Shell all put up their prices by 5c and 6c a litre yesterday, Gull said it would hold out until Monday.

The increase comes hard on the heels of US crude oil pushing through the psychological US$100 a barrel barrier for the first time.

Despite claims on Thursday of a watching brief, by yesterday afternoon the four majors had all moved.

Petrol is up 5c a litre to 175.9c for 91 octane and 180.9c for 95, and diesel now costs 6c more a litre at 130.9c.

"That's a huge slap in the face for the motorist coming back from holiday," said Dave Bodger, New Zealand general manager of the Australian family-owned Gull.

More here .

[Duke]

It amazes me why supply and demand is so high, when better equipment is being made...US $100 barrel in Jan 2008 and US $57 barrel in 2007.....Who are the real energy hogs??? Is all this cash funding the "axis of EVIL" ???

[Taffy]

I doubt demand has increased that greatly. What it boils down to is the oil companies know they can charge what the hell they like because there's nothing anyone can do about it. Now they've broken through the 'mental barrier', it leaves it wide open to sling it up another few dollars a barrel as people will be used to it. No doubt they are also trying to cash in on oil as much as possible, now that alternative fuels are hot on the agenda.

We'll have to look up the oil giants posted profits, we'll soon see where the extra money is going.

[KiwiHopeful]

Blame it on the weak dollar. Most everyone knows half of the story: that because the dollar is worth less now (not worthless ) than it was before, oil is nominally more expensive.

But the other half of the story is that the same people who are selling us that oil are also sitting on huge reserves of dollars. So, they've seen the purchasing power of their bank accounts drop, drop, drop. They're just doing what you or I would do (if we were evil bastards)--they're making up for their losses by sucking more money out of us right now.