Diesel now more expensive than petrol - why?

just back from Holland and France and diesel is on average 5 cents cheaper than petrol, however on average petrol/diesel is 10cents more expensive than Ireland.
 
I believe that france and Holland both include the equivalent of road tax into the tax on fuel, which may be why its more expensive than here. To me that sounds like a nice fair way of taxing, as higher users of the roads pay proportionally more!
 
one point I was making is that garages in Ireland have been quick to capitalise on the popularity of diesel and raise the prices, market forces people will say, greed is what I say.
 
teachai said:
As far as diesel goes, I'm saving a minimum of 5c per litre by filling up there.
I don't think the diesel is inferior by this amount.

Also, remember its not just about quality. Its about economies of scale as well as purchasing muscle. Tesco also use their own drivers. Also, petrol is cheaper in tesco Arklow than Tesco Dundrum. I also assume that the overheads are bigger in Dundrum. Also, at least one garage in arklow is matching Tesco's prices so that helps as well.
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Lots of the garages with so called cheap diesel is cheap cause it slightly watered down which means the diesel you buy IS INFERIOR as the mpg is comprimised and bad diesel can also cause black smoke to come out your exhaust. The best place to buy diesel is SHELL and in the old filling stations where the tank are old and the walls are lined with the diesel from 5 or 10 years ago when they made good diesel.
 
UpTheBanner said:
one point I was making is that garages in Ireland have been quick to capitalise on the popularity of diesel and raise the prices, market forces people will say, greed is what I say.
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You are misguided - garages make tiny margins on Petrol/diesel e.g. they make the same amount of money from you putting €50 of petrol in your carthen if you were to buy a coffee in the shop. 5 years ago there were around 2500 garages in the country now there are little over 1100 because if you don't have a decent shop you are not going to make any money.
 
A major oil company made 1.2 billion profit in Q1 2008 and many garages are owned by oil companies....misguided...the facts speak for themselves
 
UpTheBanner said:
A major oil company made 1.2 billion profit in Q1 2008 and many garages are owned by oil companies....misguided...the facts speak for themselves
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The fact remains that retailer margins on petrol & diesel are tiny, hence the fact that filling stations tend to charge comparatively high prices for groceries, confectionery, deli etc. It is also true that many smaller filling stations have gone out of business in the past decade or so, and the only ones that survive are those who can depend on sufficient shop trade.

In this context it is a nonsense to suggest that the billions made by the major multinational oil companies are down to overcharging in the Irish market. You might as well try to cite the billions made internationally by the likes of Coca Cola as "evidence" that Irish supermarkets charge too much.
 
ubiquitous,

Can I ask where then do the profits made from sale of diesel in Ireland go? I did not explicitly say 1.2 billion was made from overcharging in the Irish market but the Irish market has contributed to that profit in an un-proportional manner relative to prices charged in other European contries where Governments place an even higher tax than our Government.

I suggest you familiarise yourself with the primary financial statements from Statoil and Topaz, check their fixed assets section and you will see the link I talk about.
 
Simple

Diesel is cheaper to refine.
However the reason it's got so much dearer is because there is a greater demand on diesel now than ever before because of the emmisions, global effect etc and as such there is not as much of it in storage as there is petrol. Therefore there is a bigger need and demand for the refining of it at prsent much more so than petrol
 
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