Iceni Posted January 1, 2009 Share Posted January 1, 2009 When I arrived in France in March 2003 prices at the local Leclerc were (approx)SP95 €1.00Gazole €0.75Yesterday SP95 €0.999Gazole €0.94Is the difference in gazole due to tax changes or the law of supply and demand ?HNYJohn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman Posted January 1, 2009 Share Posted January 1, 2009 I beleive that the French government is commited to harmonising tax on Gazole and Essence. Link below is out of date but gives a fair idea of the current split.http://www.linternaute.com/auto/dossier/carburants-qualite-prix/decomposition.shtml Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giantpanda Posted January 1, 2009 Share Posted January 1, 2009 HoThe price of fuel is dependant on taxes which are not simply proportional and can work differently on the different fuel.France has had the project to put gradually the the price of gazole up to the price of petrol. But that has not really been applied.You have to remember that French car manufacturers here produce more than 50% diesel for the home market, and putting up the diesel price would hit then in 1st line.Yours,giantpanda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 I believe that refineries have generally been designed to favour the production of petrol/gasoline over other hydrocarbons. With more and more cars running on gazole, this is causing a shortage of gazole, resulting in upward pressure on prices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tegwini Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 We paid .89 cents p litre for diesel at Auchan in Chaseneuil, Poitiers last Wednesday. And, that's a big improvement on the price here in the UK - still well over a £ per litre.Tegwini Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrCanary Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Based on iceni's current prices and the present exchange rate, it now means petrol is cheaper in England than in France and diesel is about the same price.(Current Norwich prices: petrol 82.9p per litre and diesel 94.9p per litre; and euro/pound about one for one!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 [quote user="Mel"]Based on iceni's current prices and the present exchange rate, it now means petrol is cheaper in England than in France and diesel is about the same price.(Current Norwich prices: petrol 82.9p per litre and diesel 94.9p per litre; and euro/pound about one for one!) [/quote]Naturally.The present exchange rate has put up prices 50% since a couple of years ago (150/100 being the values of a £ before and after) ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plod Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 I can't remember the last time petrol was more expensive in France than the UK. At 87 - 89 pence per litre in the UK, that makes it about 12 pence per litre more expensive in France. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
virginia.c Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 82.9p at Shell (I think) on the way to Truro (Cornwall) and 84.9p at Morrisons outside Newquay. Petrolprices.com will email updates on cheapest petrol in your area. It's a useful update - here in Kent prices can vary a lot from garage to garage in a small area so it helps to decide which one you're going to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerdesal Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 [quote user="Ian"]I believe that refineries have generally been designed to favour the production of petrol/gasoline over other hydrocarbons. With more and more cars running on gazole, this is causing a shortage of gazole, resulting in upward pressure on prices.[/quote]Ian, your first sentence is certainly true of USA refineries which are mostly hydrocrackers which produce gasoline preferentially over diesel, however, the European refineries are predominantly catalytic crackers which produce a higher proportion of diesel.There is, in fact, no shortage of diesel (gazole), if there were you would have trouble finding some. The high price of diesel in UK is solely a function of tax and a deliberate, documented tax policy of having a higher tax levy on diesel fuel than on petrol. It must be assumed that the French authorities are slowly following the same pattern, as in fact the Belgian Govt did some years ago (I believe) after a concerted effort to persuade people to buy diesel cars in preference to petrol one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrCanary Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Steve...Interestingly though, there has been no change in the UK taxes of petrol and diesel since the prices rocketed and subsequently tumbled. Yet, before they went up, petrol was about 4p per litre cheaper than diesel in England and now it is 12p to 14p cheaper. How can that be explained? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerdesal Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Mel,If you are correct in that the UK treasury have not increased the tax by stealth (are you sure???) then one possible reason is that there is a shortage of European refining capacity. This happened in 2008 also and resulted in diesel fuel being shipped from US refineries to compensate. This would, I suspect, give a higher base cost and hence higher retail costs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thibault Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 I think that A Darling increased excise duty on petrol etc at the time of the VAT reduction recently. This has meant a problem for commercial hauliers as previously they could claim back the VAT, but cannot on excise duty. The govt also did something similar on wines.I gather there will be a further tax rise on petrol etc in April - unless things get much worse than currently expected, perhaps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 [quote user="powerdesal"][quote user="Ian"]I believe that refineries have generally been designed to favour the production of petrol/gasoline over other hydrocarbons. With more and more cars running on gazole, this is causing a shortage of gazole, resulting in upward pressure on prices.[/quote]Ian, your first sentence is certainly true of USA refineries which are mostly hydrocrackers which produce gasoline preferentially over diesel, however, the European refineries are predominantly catalytic crackers which produce a higher proportion of diesel.[/quote]Yes, I think it was a US-slanted article I read. Sorry to mislead..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tegwini Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 "diesel is about the same price". Mel I don't think so - .89 cents ( nr. Poitiers) = £1.05 (cheapest around here- Wilts) Even with the present exchange rate it's still cheaper in France. And these prices are over the past few days, and paid for at those prices. OH makes a point of comparing.Tegwini Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrCanary Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 tegwini - obviously it will vary depending on the areas compared.In iceni's original post in this thread, he referred to diesel being 0.94 at his local Leclerc's on 1st January. On that same date, and today, most of the garages in my area of Norwich are selling diesel at 94.9p per litre. With an exchange rate of about one for one, that makes the prices about the same as far as I am concerned! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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