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It all makes matters worse when consumers look south of the border. Ask just about anyone on the street, and they'll tell you that we pay more for gas than Americans do. And they want to know why.
But Imperial Oil says Canadians have it wrong.
Frank Pickard says it's "absolutely not" true that Canadians pay more for gas than their southern counterparts. "The tax structure in Canada and the US is very different. So when Canadians go down to Florida for the summer they see much lower prices and they presume that that's got something to do with the oil industry. Absolutely not."
He says taxes are the key to the price difference.
Marketplace surveyed 10 cities in Canada and 10 cities in the United States. We converted all prices to Canadian cents per litre. Here's what we found:
* The lowest price at the pump in the US was 29.9 cents a litre in Atlanta.
* The lowest price at the pump in Canada was 56.9 cents a litre in Calgary - 27 cents higher.
But remember, according to Pickard and the oil companies, taxes are the key, so let's take taxes out.
Minus the tax there is still a big difference:
* The lowest price in the United States, taxes out, was 18.4 cents per litre, again in Atlanta.
* The lowest price in Canada, taxes out, was 30.3 cents a litre in Ottawa.
Again, our comparisons are with taxes taken out, in Canadian cents per litre.
In our survey, Marketplace found that in seven of the 10 U.S. cities, you could get gas cheaper than in any of the Canadian cities.
We also saw a much wider spread between the highest price and the lowest price available: In Canada, nine of the 10 cities had a price spread of less than four cents a litre, with as little as 0.9 cents a litre.
In the U.S., seven of the 10 cities had a spread of more than 10 cents a litre, up to as much as 20.9 cents.
In Ontario, for instance, Imperial Oil, Petro-Canada and Sunoco control 85 percent of the refining market.
In Quebec, Ultramar, Petro-Canada and Shell control all of it.
But in a competitive market like Texas the picture is quite different: Exxon, Amoco and Mobil control only 29 per cent of refining.
Gasoline prices, reversing a two-month slide, are again approaching records and at least one expert thinks they could hit $3 a gallon soon in the United States.
"We'll see it within a year," T. Boone Pickens, head of the billion-dollar hedge fund BP Capital Management, said on CNN's "In The Money" over the weekend.
Pickens noted the discrepancy between $2 a gallon gas in the US and $5 a gallon gas in Europe. "The energy situation is global," he said. "I know there are taxes involved in the pricing...but eventually it's going to have to move up."
Gasoline prices mounted a renewed surge last month, with regular self serve rising 8 cents to average $2.21 a gallon, according to a survey released Sunday. That's just 7 cents below the all-time high set April 8.
Originally posted by Snoopdopey
What are you lads complaining about.
Scotland, UK.
85p a litre = $1.54 a litre = $5.83 per US Gallon
I WOULD LOVE TO PAY $2.21 A GALLON!!!
Filling a 22-gallon tank in Baghdad with low-grade fuel costs just $1.10, plus a 50-cent tip for the attendant. A tankful of high-test costs $2.75.
In Britain, by contrast, gasoline prices hit $5.79 per gallon last week - $127 for a tankful.
Originally posted by Snoopdopey
What are you lads complaining about.
Scotland, UK.
85p a litre = $1.54 a litre = $5.83 per US Gallon
I WOULD LOVE TO PAY $2.21 A GALLON!!!
I would be interested to know how much of the price in the UK or Europe is taxes, and how much is the price of the fuel.