Fuel prices hitting an eight year high

[Ultegra134]

Fuel prices have skyrocketed in the past few months, on a worldwide scale. Here in Greece, the average price per liter for 95 Unleaded petrol is €1.75, while for diesel it's approximately €1.45. A huge surge is also expected, in the soon-to-be launched season of heating gas oil, which is expected to start within the next few weeks, with a rumored price of at least €1.10/liter.

I've read that this spike in prices is triggered by an increase in price per barrel, due to oil companies worrying about the pandemic, while their production is limited compared to the higher demand. Have you heard anything relative? What's causing this surge in prices, could it be a one-off thing which lasts a couple of months at most?

What's the average cost of petrol/diesel in your country? Share your thoughts on what exactly is causing this crisis, which is also spiking electricity costs up, increasing the budget for the average household.

Sources:
https://www.bruegel.org/2021/09/is-europes-gas-and-electricity-price-surge-a-one-off/
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58718148

[1714938178]

1714938178

[1714938178]

1714938178

[1714938178]

1714938178

[stompix]

And years of neglect, no more investing in reserves a complete government aversion towards anything that is related to fossil fuel finally comes and presents the bill. Keystone was bad, remember?

Europe is paying the price for it too, no more drilling, let's go all green, but when the wind stops Denmark does also,   no more water in Norway dams and we're going to get power from what? The solar panels in Germany that get 4 hours of sun a day and the coal and nuclear and gas power plants that are shut own?

We're finally here, right before total green power and renewable dominance, where everyone will ditch their car and cycle in the morning to "work" in the woods gathering tree barks and mushrooms. Of course, you will need a special permit for this cause it will also affect the environment, so only 5 square centimeters of treebark per family member per day.

What could anyone expect from such a situation:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/04/business/energy-environment/oil-and-gas-prices-clean-energy.html

The situation in the United States is not quite as dire, but oil and gasoline prices are high enough that President Biden has been calling on foreign producers to crank up supply. He is doing so as he simultaneously pushes Congress to address climate change by moving the country away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy and electric cars.

Yeah, it makes perfect logic, you destroy the supply and then you go on all fours and beg others to give you oil. What could go wrong???

And if you think this is bad, wait for the consequences, wait till the cost will reflect in the agriculture products, in the transport, in everything else, then the real pain will start, better prepare which room you want to heat during winter.
Oh, and regular here is still €1.4 diesel a bit cheaper at 1.37.

[Ultegra134]

And years of neglect, no more investing in reserves a complete government aversion towards anything that is related to fossil fuel finally comes and presents the bill. Keystone was bad, remember?

Europe is paying the price for it too, no more drilling, let's go all green, but when the wind stops Denmark does also,   no more water in Norway dams and we're going to get power from what? The solar panels in Germany that get 4 hours of sun a day and the coal and nuclear and gas power plants that are shut own?

We're finally here, right before total green power and renewable dominance, where everyone will ditch their car and cycle in the morning to "work" in the woods gathering tree barks and mushrooms. Of course, you will need a special permit for this cause it will also affect the environment, so only 5 square centimeters of treebark per family member per day.

What could anyone expect from such a situation:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/04/business/energy-environment/oil-and-gas-prices-clean-energy.html

The situation in the United States is not quite as dire, but oil and gasoline prices are high enough that President Biden has been calling on foreign producers to crank up supply. He is doing so as he simultaneously pushes Congress to address climate change by moving the country away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy and electric cars.

Yeah, it makes perfect logic, you destroy the supply and then you go on all fours and beg others to give you oil. What could go wrong???

And if you think this is bad, wait for the consequences, wait till the cost will reflect in the agriculture products, in the transport, in everything else, then the real pain will start, better prepare which room you want to heat during winter.
Oh, and regular here is still €1.4 diesel a bit cheaper at 1.37.

The so-called renewable energy sources are not enough to depend on yet, I do understand that the fossil fuel usage should be reduced, but I don't believe that green energy sources are to depend on currently. We're a long way till that happens.

I'm hoping that it's a one off thing and prices fall to normal levels soon, fueling up the car or buying heating gas oil has become unbearable.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

The so-called renewable energy sources are not enough to depend on yet, I do understand that the fossil fuel usage should be reduced, but I don't believe that green energy sources are to depend on currently. We're a long way till that happens.

I think you're right, but it's amazing to me that in 2021 with all the technology we have at our disposal that we're still very much dependent on oil drilling, refining, and gasoline consumption.  Solar technology is definitely available; I just think it's unaffordable for most folks, at least for the initial outlay for solar panels and whatever else is needed to power an average home.  I would imagine that once the price comes down for those things (and people wise up to the fact that solar is cheaper and better for the environment), adoption will increase.

I also get the feeling that car manufacturers and big oil companies have hindered the adoption of alternative energy sources for a long time now, though backdoor lobbying.  If you asked me for evidence of that, I couldn't provide it, but those two industries alone have so much invested in keeping people dependent on oil that it's hard to believe that their pool of enormous resources hasn't gone into buying off politicians as well as influencing public opinion.

Viva la Tesla!

[Mauser]

I also read that the rise in fuel prices is coming from the producers being unwilling to increase their production output. For oil producers in the middle east it would be easy to just ramp up production but of course they are not interested. We shouldn't forget that fuel was very cheap over the last 10 years and especially with the pandemic we saw a big drop in demand. The lockdown prevented people from travelling and industrial production also dropped because companies were laying off workers. In the end the oil companies now are very happy with higher prices and will likely not trying to produce more to lower them any time soon. Its all about making more money for them.

[LoyceV]

And years of neglect, no more investing in reserves a complete government aversion towards anything that is related to fossil fuel finally comes and presents the bill.

Europe wants to reduce emissions, and at the same time are asking Russia for more natural gas

Super 95 gasoline has reached €2 per liter here. Mostly because of taxes of course.

Solar technology is definitely available; I just think it's unaffordable for most folks

It's not nearly as available as fossil fuel. This is reality (note that this doesn't even include non-electric energy):

(image source)

As an individual, you can just buy solar panels, fill your rooftop, and call yourself all green. But as a continent, ramping up the production (in China, Lol) to the required volume takes a few decades.

[Gyfts]

...

It's always troubled me that the green folks wanting to eliminate fossil fuels will turn their head away from nuclear energy, pretending that the fate of Chernobyl is emblematic of all nuclear energy plants. OPEC has the monopoly on oil and the R&D into green forms of energy aren't happening fast enough, especially when you eliminate nuclear as an option.

[Wind_FURY]

It’s inflation, going to hyperinflation. There’s simply too much money in the system that’s sending prices UP. Plus the price of crude is oil surging too, https://www.investing.com/commodities/brent-oil

Another graph for everyone to check is the average wage and salary of workers, https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q

It is surging, with the largest surge during 2020 because there’s simply too much money printed, and it might not stop yet. Hedge, HODL Bitcoin.

[DrBeer]

Tell me - and you are not worried that everything was fine on the market yesterday, but then, someone was not given what he wanted ... And he decided to show everyone who is the boss and who needs to be obeyed. He now has an almost monopoly influence on the European market, has influence on some key EU politicians, and wants to have total influence on the EU hydrocarbon market. What for ? There are many goals - to fill his impoverished pocket, to show that he can do what he wants and his laws and rules are not interested, that he will only act as he wants. And if without beautiful descriptions, this is called economic terrorism. And the only question is whether cowardice will triumph and whether politicians and whole European peoples will kneel before this terrorist, or will honor, conscience, pride prevail and such a variant of terrorism will be destroyed and never again will the "mad merchant from a rotten gas station" will intimidate and rule the peoples ?!
PS To understand the situation - according to all the data, hydrocarbons, without the development of new fields, are quite enough today to provide today's oil and gas consumption for another 15-20 years without any problems! Believe me, in today's technological world, 15-20 years is a huge time for the development, implementation and production of a huge number of solutions that will significantly reduce the consumption of hydrocarbons. But someone is used to living in the Stone Age, and terrorizing the whole world ...

[dothebeats]

Next week, these oil price hikes will come to take effect on our country. It's the highest it has been for this year, and I think I might have to drop the car for the mean time and just use my bike to work. Electric vehicles are also not a thing here in the country, and we still have very vague and crude registration rules and guidelines on electric vehicles.

I find it illogical that we have all this tech and advancements in the world yet we still are stuck with fossil fuels. There are tons of other energy sources to choose from yet we still insist drilling the earth and looking for some long dead plants/animals/whatever fossilized and extracting them for energy. Even if that's the case, I'm still happy that other parts of the world are already shifting away from traditional gas vehicles, and switching over to EVs. At the least, we are seeing some small changes, but in this day and age we should have shifted to EVs for a long time now.

[LoyceV]

Believe me, in today's technological world, 15-20 years is a huge time for the development, implementation and production of a huge number of solutions that will significantly reduce the consumption of hydrocarbons.

Quick question: would you have said the same thing 15-20 years ago? I'm asking because ever since humans discovered fossil fuel, technological development has only lead to an increasing consumption of it:

(image source)

[Ultegra134]

The so-called renewable energy sources are not enough to depend on yet, I do understand that the fossil fuel usage should be reduced, but I don't believe that green energy sources are to depend on currently. We're a long way till that happens.

I think you're right, but it's amazing to me that in 2021 with all the technology we have at our disposal that we're still very much dependent on oil drilling, refining, and gasoline consumption.  Solar technology is definitely available; I just think it's unaffordable for most folks, at least for the initial outlay for solar panels and whatever else is needed to power an average home.  I would imagine that once the price comes down for those things (and people wise up to the fact that solar is cheaper and better for the environment), adoption will increase.

I also get the feeling that car manufacturers and big oil companies have hindered the adoption of alternative energy sources for a long time now, though backdoor lobbying.  If you asked me for evidence of that, I couldn't provide it, but those two industries alone have so much invested in keeping people dependent on oil that it's hard to believe that their pool of enormous resources hasn't gone into buying off politicians as well as influencing public opinion.

Viva la Tesla!

I also believe that we don't lack the technology, but it's not being implemented. The transition to renewable energy sources will take decades to be implemented, which is quite troubling, due to some countries who could genuinely take advantage of solar and wind energy. For instance, here in Greece, we have more than 300 days of sunlight per year, it would be great even if solar panels were implemented by companies or individuals themselves.

If I had my own house, I'd definitely invest in buying solar panels, enough to power the whole house and a charging station for electric vehicles, it would be an investment which would quickly pay off.

[Lucius]

These days, the prices of fuel (but also gas) have become a hot topic, but all the price increases that are happening are quite logical for me personally - because all those measures that have been implemented over the past 2 years cost a lot, and now it's probably time for billing. The best way to provoke a chain reaction of price increases is to increase the price of the base energy source, which is of course fuel. After that, everything becomes more expensive, and the state treasury collects more taxes from VAT.

Leaving aside all that @stompix mentioned (and it definitely makes sense), and comparing fuel prices in Europe, it’s hard not to notice the differences. For example, in most EU countries the price for 95 is on average around EUR 1.50, but some countries still have a lower price.

- Bulgaria € 1.14
- Czech Republic € 1.36
- Hungary € 1.31
- Malta € 1.34
- Poland € 1.28
- Romania € 1.23
- Slovenia € 1.28

It seems to me that countries outside the Eurozone still have more control over fuel prices (with some exceptions), while countries within the Eurozone generally have similar prices, although there are exceptions. So I wonder what the reasons are for the differences in prices for the same product - maybe the reason is that some countries have higher oil/fuel stocks in tanks so they are not immediately subject to rising oil prices or is it due to competition in the domestic market for oil products, maybe some other reason?

Here you can see fuel prices in Europe : https://www.tolls.eu/fuel-prices

[stompix]

For instance, here in Greece, we have more than 300 days of sunlight per year, it would be great even if solar panels were implemented by companies or individuals themselves.

It does not matter how many days of sun you get but how much of that energy you can harvest, and Greece despite being all sunny and so for tourism it lags well behind a lot of countries by actual potential.
Excluding the islands, you only get 4 hours on average spread through that day, so you would need to either program all your activities during peak hours or a ton of batteries.

I think you're right, but it's amazing to me that in 2021 with all the technology we have at our disposal that we're still very much dependent on oil drilling, refining, and gasoline consumption.  Solar technology is definitely available; I just think it's unaffordable for most folks, at least for the initial outlay for solar panels and whatever else is needed to power an average home.  I would imagine that once the price comes down for those things (and people wise up to the fact that solar is cheaper and better for the environment), adoption will increase.

Nope, it's math.
Combining with what I've said above, you can't really put all those panels everywhere and that's it.
Europe sucks bigtime at solar potential, Germany has the same numbers as Alaska (no joke), and most of the industrial zone of Europe is on the same page. So you need to install a ton, invest a ton in batteries only to be hit by a Dunkelflaute and then...what do you do? Not a problem if you live in California but when it's -25C outside like last year, it's a different thing.

And this is what's happening in Europe now, no wind and no sun, winter is near,  and all the renewables are dead in the water. Here is the number for energy production for Germany last month. You can see that solar is near nuclear, but nuclear has a 10GW capacity while germans have installed 50GW of solar panels, and the bill for that is just 30 billion last year and more than 200 since 2010.

Let's add the fact that they have the highest price per kWh in the world at 30 cents/kWh?
No, solar is not cheaper, it's made cheaper by taxing you and subsidizing it.

So I wonder what the reasons are for the differences in prices for the same product - maybe the reason is that some countries have higher oil/fuel stocks in tanks so they are not immediately subject to rising oil prices or is it due to competition in the domestic market for oil products, maybe some other reason?

Taxes:
https://www.fuelseurope.eu/knowledge/refining-in-europe/economics-of-refining/fuel-price-breakdown/
0.37 in Romania and 0.73 in Italy. (gasoline, diesel is different)
France actually gets cheaper gas before tax compared to Romania but it ends up costing 0.5 euros more.

[Ultegra134]

For instance, here in Greece, we have more than 300 days of sunlight per year, it would be great even if solar panels were implemented by companies or individuals themselves.

It does not matter how many days of sun you get but how much of that energy you can harvest, and Greece despite being all sunny and so for tourism it lags well behind a lot of countries by actual potential.
Excluding the islands, you only get 4 hours on average spread through that day, so you would need to either program all your activities during peak hours or a ton of batteries.

I'm not an expert on this field by any means, I'm not exactly sure on how exactly solar panels work and how efficient they are. However, as you've also mentioned, Germany and other nearby countries can't take advantage of the sunlight, due to their climate. I live in Crete, which is sunny for most of the day (And for most of the year), the same thing doesn't occur in north Greece though (Thessaloniki for instance).

[so98nn]

This is gonna be epic one. I mean peeps have started to opt out for the electric vehicles, go green moto everywhere and what however, sooner or later everything is interconnected. Get this: A popular example and dream of richest person Elon is to run everything on green sources. So many automobile industries followed the same and now we see electric cars everywhere.

However, we are not capable of harnessing the natural sources at that speed and soon the whole electrical grid will collapse because we will be consuming more electrical power than ever before.

There is now way to get rid of "Power Greed". Somehow cycles will be connected. You need electricity then you will need electricity plants, raw materials to run them whether hydro power or fossils. You are using the natural sources and many of them are expensive to find in natural habitat.

Today the Oil is getting costly, tomorrow same problem will follow with the electricity too! You have to have a source to produce energy. One form from another and everything is limited unless and until we get a tech developed to harness 100% sun's energy.  

[dezoel]

Energy sources in the world will keep on becoming more and more expensive, and that is why EV and every possible renewable energy source will be able to get ahead of the old ones. Not because they are more efficient or they are more green, because they are more cheap.

Realize this fact; energy company do not care about the world, this has been proven true for many years now, it has been 20 years of steady decline in the world and we have places burning like crazy, Australia literally burned for months, California is so dry that every year we have wildfires there and these are "famous" places, places that many people do not even hear about in the news burns as well and yet energy companies do not care. However the moment it makes more profit to have solar panels and wind turbines then having oil wells, those energy companies will try to look like the greenest mofos in the world and pump that.

[fiulpro]

In India, the fuel prices hiked for 5th day in a row!! Crossing the 100 inr mark. In Ukraine it's 1.33$ per liter, which is not that high in comparison. But the fact is, it's during the COVID-19. Plus it's not just fuel prices, it's also the prices in public transportation.
In Ukraine, It's *5 times now, since 2018-19. Plus shouldn't COVID would have helped the government to control it, to help people??? The working?? The middle class??? One might think but unfortunately due to the failing economy I think they are just trying to make up for that. At the same time due to border regulations right now it's hard for the countries who are not producing it, rather importing it..
For countries like Venezuela, the price is 0.2$, a country with the biggest oil reserves in the world. It's all about geography and international relations right now..
That's why the need of the hour is *to use renewable sources of energy* that's a whole new topic.

[Sithara007]

Trump had kept the oil prices in check, by removing obstacles for fracking and oil/natural gas exports from the United States. He also streamlined the approval process for the new pipelines. But after the regime change, Biden has reversed most of these policies, and as a result the crude prices have gone up by 100% and the natural gas prices have gone up by 1200%. In the end, the citizens in non-oil producing countries are going to suffer, as they will witness steep inflation rates and a weakening of their national currency.

[jaysabi]

...

It's always troubled me that the green folks wanting to eliminate fossil fuels will turn their head away from nuclear energy, pretending that the fate of Chernobyl is emblematic of all nuclear energy plants. OPEC has the monopoly on oil and the R&D into green forms of energy aren't happening fast enough, especially when you eliminate nuclear as an option.

Nuclear has it's own set of problems.  It produces no carbon emissions, but it does create radioactive waste that takes thousands of years to degrade and has to be safely and securely stored.  On top of that, the natural disaster at Fukushima showed that outside disasters can also impact the safety of the plants.  You don't really have safety concerns with green energy alternatives; their biggest problem is scale and reliability.