Fuel Prices

[leemsutton]

I had a good e mail sent to me the other day, it goes along the lines of this:

Fuel prices are currently about 77ppl. Well thats set to change to in the region of 88ppl very shortly. Why - well because we are all used to thinking that 77ppl is a good price so the oil companies are going to increase it slightly over the next few months.

The last protest when we were all not supposed to buy fuel did not hurt the oil companies because they were expecting it and they knew that we all needed fuel.

However a new idea is to stop buying fuel off the 2 biggest companies BP and ESSO. Instead go to the likes of Q8 etc.

This will reduce BP's and ESSO's profit margin thus making them reduce their prices. This in turn will make the smaller companies reduce there fuel prices also to remain competitive.

We need to do this until we get fuel at around 67ppl where we all can be happy.

E-mail this idea to 10 people and then get them to e mail it to 10 people and so on. Apparently within 8 days we could reach over 100,000 million people!

Its got to be worth a try - so as I dont have all your e mail address's that use this forum I thought this would be a easier way.

Lee

[eppie]

Diesel (low tax agricultural Diesel with red color additive, trucks use high tax speedway diesel here)used to be 20 Eurocent in the Netherlands, for 2 years ago.
Now its 50 Eurocent.

[Woodbeef]

Interesting idea there "Sir Lee"!!

If you could get enough people to stick to it you might get it to work eventually. But in there lies the problem,how long will it take? Sooner or later some people will tire of driving to an off-brand station,and one by one they will return to the big guys,thus squashing your protest from the inside out!

When the prices were high over here last year. There were web sites of where to get the cheapest off brand gas,and even the radio stations were in on it. It was not overlly successfull unfortunately.

Those big companies have very deep pockets,and can ride out a lot of things. Remember though that they set the price scale for everyone. Look into where the little guys get there fuel from.

[kenjar]

Hey Lee,
    Oddly, I received a similar email a couple months ago.
I don't know about you but here the minor brands sell fuel at lower prices than the majors. I beleive they sell more as well.
    I think Woodbeef has a point though, the little guys probably get their fuel from the big boys.
   

[[e-mail]]

While the idea has some merit in the short term, we have to remember that oil is a finite commodity.

We have less than half the world's original reserves of oil remaining and usage is growing at about 5% per annum, so we can be sure that the only way prices will go in the future is upwards. Current predictions are that the price will begin to take off in the next 5-8 years.

On the flip side, the Diesel engine was originally designed to run on vegetable oil. The oil we currently use is a byproduct of the refining process and so the oil companies can charge what they like for it.

In Europe they have been using vegetable oil for years. All French diesel contains 5% vegetable oil, and Germany, Austria and Italy all sell blended diesel oil.

In the UK the tax regime has been changed recently to make vegetable oil economically viable (for road use, not Ag), and I believe a number of processing plants are currently coming on stream. Some plants intend to use "fresh" oil (from Rape grown on setaside land), while others are planning to use waste oil from the food processing industry.

While the initiative Lee mentions might be beneficial in the short term, there is a major problem/opportunity coming over the horizon which should be of massive benefit to the agricultural economy.

[Laapa]

I see your point Lee, however given how much money we pay as tax on fuel and how much goes into the pockets of the oilcompanies i think it would be attacing the wrong end of the problem.
If the oilcompanies took NO PROFIT whatsoever for their work it would hardly effect prices at all. At the end of the year you would not notice in your farm accounting.
Write your politicitans and make them lower taxes on fuel (and a lot of other things as well). Do not encourage chain-email. If cain-email ("send this message to 10 people you know..." etc.) would be truly succesfull all of internet would collapse from overload.

[eppie]

Here in Holland, prime minister Kok (not cock) came up with a very good idea: a quarter of a guilder (that was before the Euro came) extra tax on fuel. That should solve the problem of traffic jams, if not, the "quarter of Kok" would be dropped.

Traffic jams have increased since then, but we still pay that "quarter of Kok" extra tax.

Its the governments that are cheating on us. not Saddam Hussein or those other oil miners. Saddam hussein just uses the principles of free market economy.

Saddam is worse for his own people than for us, he wont share the money we pay him for the oil with his people....

[F6L913]

Hello,

I paid last fuel at 0.32 €.  Renze, where do you buy your fuel, i think the prize is low, only 0.20 € ?

[F6L913]

sorry Renze, i don't read your post good.
So, fuel is cheapper in Catalunya than in the Netherlands