Gasoline prices fluctuate, and depending on where you are, they can be more or less profitable. In Russia, people are used to paying large sums of money at gas stations. But have you ever wondered how much you would pay for gasoline in other regions of the world?
Using data from government energy agencies and reports from Bloomberg, the IMF, the UN and the World Bank, as well as GlobalPetrolPrices, which tracks retail prices for motor fuel, electricity and natural gas in more than 150 countries around the world, we compared how much it would cost to fill a car in another country. Some of the results are really amazing. The next time you get angry at a sudden rise in gas prices, pay attention to the bright side: it is cheaper in Russia than in the United States. Or in China, or in Poland, or in Germany, or in dozens of other countries.
Countries with the lowest gasoline prices
Everyone needs fuel to drive. OPEC is working to stabilize oil markets, but prices remain highly variable. This is due to various factors, including geographic location, infrastructure, political conflicts, taxes and excise duties, average monthly income of citizens, demand in the domestic market, scale and profitability of own energy resources, fuel transportation methods, etc.
The problem of price instability in the fuel market concerns all “mere mortals”. It would seem, what is the value of the cost of gasoline where most of the citizens cannot afford a car? Really huge. Oil prices affect everything that needs to be transported. The most important of these products is food. Thus, even a "horseless" citizen who relies only on his own feet suffers from high fuel prices.
However, in some states, gasoline is distributed very cheaply, almost for nothing. Here is a list of countries where you can find the cheapest gasoline at a gas station (weekly updated GlobalPetrolPrices data for August 02, 2021; the cost of a liter of 95 octane gasoline in Russian rubles and US dollars):
It is not hard to see some similarities between these countries. First, none of them has a developed economy. Secondly, nowhere is there a full-fledged democracy. Third, there is oil in the bowels of each.
At the same time, Russia is in the 25th position of this rating (49.9 Russian rubles / 0.684 US dollars), Uzbekistan - 28th (53.57 / 0.734), Belarus - 34th (59.43 / 0.814), the USA - 49th (68.07 / 0.933), Turkey - 51st (68.36 / 0.936), Ukraine - 80th (82.1 / 1.125), China - 87th (85.68 / 1.174), Japan - 115 th (103.62 / 1.42), and Israel - at 162nd (148.75 / 2.038).
Low prices: evil or good?
Motorists in the developed world gnash their teeth at the thought that their counterparts in distant lands fill up a gas tank for less than a cup of coffee, but the numbers on fuel price lists don't tell the whole story. After all, the average salary in the United States and Japan is much higher than in the top countries on this list. A quick look at the GDP and purchasing power of the population gives a better idea of the relationship between income and prices.
For example, in Algeria, the average private motorist spends about US $ 435 on car fuel, or about 6 percent of GDP per capita (the starting point is filling a medium-sized tank twice a month during the year). A similar "feeding" of a car in the United States will cost about $ 1230 per year, or 2.6% of GDP per capita.
Unsurprisingly, in terms of fuel prices, some of the cheapest places on the planet are those with huge natural reserves. Somewhere they consume more than they produce (say, in the States or Australia), somewhere less - in Turkmenistan, for example, Iran or Venezuela. But why should some countries, even those producing oil in moderation, maintain low home prices and thus high demand? One of the main reasons is that low prices help governments create a picture of self-sufficiency and well-being, especially in regions with high levels of poverty.
Despite the fact that drivers around the world have different salaries, artificially maintaining low oil prices puts governments in a difficult position. They are losing a significant source of profit that could be used to promote economic and social development, fill the sovereign wealth fund and support non-resource industries. In addition, it will be difficult for them to gain the upper hand over market forces in the future, in part because price increases will be felt immediately. As can be seen from world practice, people always react sharply and raise a fuss about fuel prices, even if this expense item makes up a very tiny part of their average annual spending.
As tempting as low fuel prices are, it must be understood that they distort consumer behavior by giving individuals and businesses an incentive to drive. The traffic flow is increasing, the environment is deteriorating, mortality / disability due to road accidents increases, there are fewer reasons for creating more efficient technologies, the efforts of engineers and scientists are spent on something that is not really important for the well-being of human society.
According to the global corporation SWFI (Sovereign Wealth Funds Institute), some oil-rich countries lack sovereign wealth. Many regions with the cheapest gasoline - including Oman, Iran, Algeria and Venezuela - have low transparency rates. In addition, most of them have very low assets, given the volume of oil they produce.
The essence of the problem
Governments know what popular anger is fraught with. If you are trying to maintain power over a disgruntled population, the last thing you need to do is raise the price of your fuel and make people even more angry. Therefore, even when the pressure in the steam boiler of the economy soars dangerously, the authorities are trying to delay the start of market reforms necessary to raise fuel prices. Whether the leaders on our list will be able to continue offering cheap gasoline depends not so much on their political will as on how much oil remains in their bowels. After all, oil reserves are not unlimited.
In any case, owners of small cars spend the least on fuel. compact cars for the city, which are not afraid of traffic jams.