Plenty of people have lost big because of the oil price crash over the last year: rig workers, oil-company shareholders, OPEC government coffers. One massive constituency is benefitting universally: drivers.
The map below shows the change in gasoline prices from October 2014 to July 2015 in 76 countries tracked by Bloomberg. There’s only one color scale because gasoline prices moved in only one direction: down. Declines ranged from 0 percent (light green) in Saudi Arabia, where prices are fixed, to 97 percent (dark green) in Venezuela, where a fleet of two dozen SUVs can now be filled up for less than a dollar.
Gasoline Prices Tumble Across the Map
Gasoline prices vary, country by country, based on refinery conditions, changes in taxes and subsidies, and currency values. To create the best comparison, prices for the map were converted to U.S. dollars when the surveys were taken, so a strengthening dollar helped make the map even greener1.
On average, gasoline prices declined 15 percent. They still have further to fall, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Last week the agency forecast U.S. gasoline to drop another 17 percent, to an average pump price of $2.03 a gallon by year’s end. Gasoline prices typically fall after the end of the summer vacation driving season, but this year’s decline could be the biggest since the recession.
See the Bloomberg Gasoline Price Ranking for a more detailed breakdown of prices and affordability by country:
Kenz300 on Tue, 15th Sep 2015 9:24 am
It is time for countries that subsidize gas prices to end their subsidies…….. they are subsidizing wasteful consumption….. now is the time to end the practice of wasteful subsidization.
Dubya on Tue, 15th Sep 2015 10:09 am
Somebody calculated that the cost of protecting the US fuel supply during one of the gulf wars (second? First? Will not end in our lifetimes?) was $14 per gallon.
So it would seem reasonable that gas should sell for around $12-18 / gallon.
Makati1 on Tue, 15th Sep 2015 11:39 am
Dubya, gas should sell for hundreds of dollars per gallon if the energy it provides was honestly calculated.
If anyone here thinks that a gallon of gas is not worth that much, put one gallon in your car’s gas tank and drive that car down the road until it runs out of gas. Then hire enough guys to push it back to the starting point. Bet you can’t get them to do it for the price of that gallon of gas. Not even close.
THAT is what we have wasted for the last 100 years.
Kenz300 on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 8:48 am
Drive an electric vehicle and driving gets even cheaper…….
Buy a bicycle and transportation costs decline even more.