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WASHINGTON - HONKED off by Los Angeles pump prices? Cheer up. You could be commuting in Oslo, where petrol costs US$9.85 (S$13.40) a gallon and filling up a Mini Cooper would set you back US$130.
That's the priciest petrol on a list of world petrol prices released on Wednesday by Associates for International Research, a Massachusetts relocation consulting firm which tracks the cost of living in dozens of countries.
In fact, at just over US$4 a gallon on average, US petrol is still cheap compared with much of the world.
'It's small consolation, I know,' said Mr Michael Shore, a senior manager at the firm. But 'the prices that (Americans) are paying now, Europeans have been paying for a long time'.
And it's not just Europe. In a more extensive study completed by the firm in March, consumers in nearly three-quarters of about 150 nations surveyed paid more for fuel than Americans did.
The world's lowest-priced petrol can be found in oil-rich Venezuela, where, at 12 US cents a gallon, you can fill a Hummer for less than the price of a Big Mac.
So why the big price differences around the world? Experts say retail petrol prices are influenced by a variety of factors, including the cost of refining, distribution and marketing.
But the biggest single variable is government policy: Some countries tax petrol heavily; others subsidise it to make it cheap.
Many countries choose the former. In the United States, state and local taxes account for about 19 per cent of the price of the average gallon of petrol, according to the Energy Information Administration.
In England, where London drivers are paying nearly US$9 a gallon, taxes account for 81.5 per cent of the pump price.
European countries have long relied on hefty fuel levies to fund roadwork and social programmes and to encourage conservation.
The same is true for some Asian nations, including South Korea (US$7.33 a gallon) and Japan (US$6.30) - both of which import all of their crude.
'When you don't produce a drop of oil...the focus is on promoting efficiency,' said Mr Sung Won Sohn, economist at the Smith School of Business at Cal State Channel Islands. The philosophy is different in some oil-rich countries which subsidise fuel as a way to share the wealth and keep citizens happy.
Drivers pay less than 50 US cents a gallon when they fill up in Saudi Arabia and Iran.
But whether it is individuals or governments picking up the tab, the fallout from exploding crude prices is being felt around the globe.
Diesel in Dutch truck driver Patrick Leenders' hometown of Montfort is around US$9.24 a gallon, so he heads to another country to find the cheapest fill-up.
Mr Leenders, whose route delivering industrial materials often takes him out of the Netherlands, tries to keep enough fuel in the tank to last until he reaches Luxembourg, 250km away, where diesel is a relative bargain at US$7.57 a gallon.
Consumers have it somewhat easier in countries where fuel is heavily subsidised. But the international price of crude has ballooned so fast that some governments are paring back this costly assistance.
China recently hiked retail petrol prices by 16 per cent and diesel prices by 18 per cent. Petrol now costs US$3.40 in Beijing. That's a bargain by California standards. But it's hurting Mr Wen Yipeng's livelihood.
A salesman at a Shanghai car dealership which sells luxury cars, he said even his rich customers are holding on to their wallets, thanks to a sliding stock market and rising fuel prices.
He said the dealership last year sold about nine Porsche Cayenne SUVs every month. Since petrol prices went up on June 20, he has not sold a single car.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
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