April 14, 2009 12:03 PM
- Text
Gas Prices: You Think You Got It Bad?
(CBS)
Even Saudi Arabia's promise to pump more oil onto the market hasn't dropped the price of a barrel of crude, which hovered Wednesday morning at around $137 a barrel - very close to the record high hit earlier this month.
CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar reported Wednesday from London, where any driver will tell you, it's not just Americans suffering at the pump, and they certainly aren't suffering the most.
Filling up isn't going to feel better anytime soon. Almost everywhere, consumers are feeling the pain.
Eye-watering prices at the pumps across the globe can make what Americans pay seem like a bargain, and getting behind the wheel feel like an outrageous extravagance.
"It's quite luxurious driving a car these days," one Londoner told MacVicar.
In the U.S., the average price is $4.10 for a gallon. Russians pay about the same.
In Japan, it's a whopping $6 a gallon, but Israelis and Europeans get hit the hardest, paying up to $10 for one gallon of gas.
Oil analyst John Hall told CBS News that "speculators are very much to blame for the increased costs we've seen in the last year or so."
But Hall also points the finger at other villains: governments - especially in Europe - cashing in.
"Sixty percent of the price we pay in the EU is duty and tax on top, so, in effect, those countries are making more money out of OPEC oil than OPEC is," said Hall.
Those figures are not too far off. For the $7 - $10 a gallon European consumers pay out, more than half goes straight into government coffers.
There are some places where gas is still a bargain, adds MacVicar, and it's generally countries that produce oil - and subsidize the cost for domestic consumption.
So, in Mexico, filling up at $2 a gallon doesn't feel so bad; or in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, where the price is about $1.50; and in Iran it's $1.20.
The best bargain of all: Oil-rich Venezuela, at just $0.15 for a gallon.
With no risk of cheap gasoline coming to a pump near you anytime soon, said MacVicar, there's not much to be done but get used to a thinner wallet, or think twice before you get behind the wheel of your car.
CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar reported Wednesday from London, where any driver will tell you, it's not just Americans suffering at the pump, and they certainly aren't suffering the most.
Filling up isn't going to feel better anytime soon. Almost everywhere, consumers are feeling the pain.
Eye-watering prices at the pumps across the globe can make what Americans pay seem like a bargain, and getting behind the wheel feel like an outrageous extravagance.
"It's quite luxurious driving a car these days," one Londoner told MacVicar.
In the U.S., the average price is $4.10 for a gallon. Russians pay about the same.
In Japan, it's a whopping $6 a gallon, but Israelis and Europeans get hit the hardest, paying up to $10 for one gallon of gas.
Oil analyst John Hall told CBS News that "speculators are very much to blame for the increased costs we've seen in the last year or so."
But Hall also points the finger at other villains: governments - especially in Europe - cashing in.
"Sixty percent of the price we pay in the EU is duty and tax on top, so, in effect, those countries are making more money out of OPEC oil than OPEC is," said Hall.
Those figures are not too far off. For the $7 - $10 a gallon European consumers pay out, more than half goes straight into government coffers.
It doesn't sit well with some Britons. "We're a small country and our government milks us for every penny," complained one London gas station patron.
There are some places where gas is still a bargain, adds MacVicar, and it's generally countries that produce oil - and subsidize the cost for domestic consumption.
So, in Mexico, filling up at $2 a gallon doesn't feel so bad; or in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, where the price is about $1.50; and in Iran it's $1.20.
The best bargain of all: Oil-rich Venezuela, at just $0.15 for a gallon.
With no risk of cheap gasoline coming to a pump near you anytime soon, said MacVicar, there's not much to be done but get used to a thinner wallet, or think twice before you get behind the wheel of your car.
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