Petrol Stations

[Hereford Wolf]

First pictures of cars queuing at a petrol station on the front of the Sunday Mirror today.
I expect the usual mad panic at the pumps within a few days.
As a society, we are very predictable.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Surprised it’s taken this long. I was on zero miles on the 2nd March when it all kicked off and thought I was going to end up getting into some queue/shortage at the end of work. Was busy but didn’t have to queue. Fortunately do most the driving in an EV so that will last well over a month and then we will see where it’s all at…

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

We have a massive fuel shortage here. The price that was $1.82 last week is now $2.59 a litre, and the tiny little shop in my town with a couple of bowsers is completely empty, and the big Mobil 5 kms away has only supreme unleaded, no standard or diesel.

I went to the town about 40ks north and it is even more expensive, and one station is limiting cars and trucks to $15 each. A 40 tonne semi is barely turning the engine over with $15 worth at those prices.

I have to get back up to my brother's place on Wednesday (thankfully the person doing the transport has a full tank and also 5 20 litre jerry cans full as they have a gardening business and need fuel for all the mowers and so on, so I can get there). I am intrigued to see if the prices go up still more as I move towards Brisbane and the main highways.

 

[lemonjelly]

Looks like the ebike is going to get some use in the coming weeks then!

 

[Lupo]

Usually fill up at Sainsbury's in Wolverhampton. Their petrol is currently 125.9p which is a 9p increase on a couple of weeks ago

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Looks like the ebike is going to get some use in the coming weeks then!

Not entirely practical around here. At least not outside the big cities or for zipping around your local town maybe.

The roads are either big highways where you would be dodging road trains on the little e-bike or graded to ungraded bush stuff which just isn't any good for anything other than a mountain bike.

 

[Wolf Hunting]

Now I don't know the ins and outs of the fuel market and how all the moving parts inter connect, but a minister over here (Ireland) has stated he's not going to tolerate massive increases in petrol.
All the current fuel has been paid for weeks ago and into the future, so there should be no increase for several weeks until the rises trickle down.
And home fuel has almost doubled!
Which is a bit of a pisser, as apparently according to this minister, we get all our oil from the North Sea, and its got fuck all to do with the Middle East!
Here's a vote winning quote.... "I will not tolerate profiteering or Price Gouging"
Apologies if this or something similar was posted elsewhere...

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

The big key is actually the release of government held reserves. The reserves held by the fuel companies will only last so long, so they are going to push the price up to try and smack down demand (with a large chunk of price-gouging thrown in).

Reserves held by national governments will extend the reserves held by the companies and already present for a few weeks which hopefully will outlast Trump's little war and the fall out. But when they are gone, they are gone, and then supply becomes permanently vulnerable to OPEC slowing production to mess about with prices in future.