The price of gasoline: Refueling, a nightmare for the pockets of the whole world

At a petrol station near Cologne Airport, Germany, Bernd Mueller watches the figures go up rapidly at the pump: 22 euros, 23 euros, 24 … The figures indicating how much petrol he has loaded also go up, but a quantity, much slower.

“I’m going to get rid of the car in October, November,” said Mueller, 80. “I’m retired and there’s fuel and everything. En algún momento hay que cortar”.

All over the world, drivers like Mueller are rethinking their habits and personal finances skyrocketing prices of gasoline and diesel, driven by Russia’s war in Ukraine and the global rebound after the pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic. energy prices they are a key factor in inflationwhich increases worldwide and makes the cost of living more expensive.

A biker in Vietnam shuts down his app to receive warnings from customers not to consume precious fuel in traffic jams rush hour.

a French family . A graphic designer in California includes fuel In the calculation of expenses for a night out. A mother in Rome After seeing how much it will cost, he takes his son to a field.

Decisions around the world are as varied as consumers and countries: walk more, dust off that bike, take the subway, train or bus. Drive slower to save fuel or review your trip based on your route. maybe also give up the car

For the millions of people who do not have access to adequate public transport or cannot do without their car for other reasons, the solution is to resign and pay

Nguyen Trong Tuyen, motorcycle taxi driver for the ride-hailing Grab app in Hanoi, Vietnam, just turn off the app at peak times.

“If I get stuck in traffic, the fare will not cover the cost of fuel for the trip,” he said.

Many drivers stop their services like Tuyen does .

In Manila, Ronald Sibeyee spent 900 ($ 16.83) on diesel a day on his jeepneya vehicle decorated with bright and popular colors such as public transport in the country, one evolution of us military jeeps

“That should have been our income by now. now there is nothing, or whatever is left, ” he said. Their income fell by around 40% due to rising fuel prices.

Each country, a case

The prices of gasoline and diesel are the result of a complex equation about the cost of oil, taxes, purchasing power and wealth of each country, government subsidies when they exist and the commissions that intermediaries such as refineries take.

The price is calculated in dollars, so that if a country is an energy importer, as in Europe, where a weaker euro helped drive up prices.

There is often too geopolitical factorscomo la guerra en Ucrania. Buyers rejecting Russian barrels and Western plans to ban Russian crude have rocked energy markets already faced supply problems by the rapid rebound after the close of the pandemic.

There is a global price of crude oil, about 110 dollars a barrel, but there is no global price at gas stations due to taxes and other factors.

You can pay in Hong Kong and Norway more than $ 10 per gallon (3.79 liters). In Germany it can be around $ 7.50 per gallon and in France around $ 8. Although lower fuel taxes make the US average slightly lower, about $ 5 a gallonit never had been so tall.

In poor countries, people feel the pressure of energy prices right away, but Europeans and Americans are also feeling it. Americans have less access to public transportation and even European networks don’t reach everywhere, especially in rural areas.

Charles Dupont, who runs a clothing store in the Essonne region, south of Paris, quite simply

drive slower and avoid hard braking”, She said.

Otros hacen lo que pueden por recortar. Letizia Cecinelli, refueling at a gas station in Rome, said she was commuting by bicycle and trying to cut back on car trips. “When possible.”

“But what if I have a child and I have to take him to the camp? I have to cutting an extra pizza”, She said.

political dynamite

Prices at gas stations can be political dynamite. US President Joe Biden pushed for Saudi Arabia extract more oil to help lower prices and announced a trip to the kingdom next month after the Riyadh OPEC alliance decided to increase production.

The United States and other countries have also released oil from their strategic reserves, which It helps but it is not decisive.

Several countries have price limits. This is the case in Hungary, where the discount is not applied to cars with a foreign license plate. In Germany, the government cut taxes by 35 cents per liter for gasoline and 17 cents for diesel, but prices soon recovered.

Germany has also introduced a reduced ticket of 9 euros per month for public transport, which crowded the stations and trains on a recent holiday weekend. But the program only lasts three months and isn’t of much help to people in rural areas if there isn’t a train station nearby.

In fact, according to the German gas station association, people consume nearly the same amount of fuel they used before the pandemic.

“People charge almost as soon as possible. They protest, but they accept it,” group spokesman Herbert Rabl said.

Is there any relief in sight? much depends on how the war in Ukraine affects global oil markets. Analysts say some Russian crude will almost certainly be lost from the market because the European Union, Russia’s largest and closest customer, has promised put an end to most purchases from moscow in six months.

Meanwhile, India and China are buying more Russian oil. Europe will have to source from other parts, such as Middle East exporters. But OPEC, which includes Russia, is not meeting its production targets.

For many, spending money on things like a night out and, in Europe, the almost religious devotion of long summer holidays I’m at stake.

Isabelle Bruno, a teacher in the Parisian suburbs, now takes the bus to the train station instead of driving for 10 minutes.

“My husband and I we are very worried about the holidays, because we drove very often when we went to visit our family in the south of France, ” he said. “We will now pay attention to train tickets and use the car for short journeys only.”

Leo Theus, a graphic designer from the city of Hayward, San Francisco Bay, has to be “strategic” about the fuel budget when meeting customers, and doesn’t fill up on, say, fuel in California. They are the highest in the United States.close to $ 7 a gallon in some parts of the state.

When it comes to going to a club or a bar after work, he said: “now you have to think about fuel, you must decide. Is it really worth going out or not? ” Theus said.

By Daniel Niemann, Paola Corona, Jade Le Deley and Hau Dinh, Associated Press

Corona reported from Rome, Le Deley from Paris and Dinh from Hanoi, Vietnam. AP writers Joeal Calupitan in Manila, Philippines, and Terry Chea in Oakland, California contributed to this report.

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