Until the beginning of this month, Americans seemed to have nothing to say about their ongoing economic ruin except, "Hit me! Please, hit me again!" You can take my house, but let me mow the lawn for you one more time before you repossess. Take my job and I'll just slink off somewhere out of sight. Oh, and take my health insurance too; I can always fall back on Advil.  

Then, on April 1, in a wave of defiance, truck drivers began taking the strongest form of action they can take: inaction. Faced with $4-per-gallon diesel fuel, they slowed down, shut down and started honking. On the New Jersey Turnpike, a convoy of trucks stretching "as far as the eye can see," according to a turnpike spokesman, drove at a glacial 20 miles per hour. 

Outside of Chicago, they slowed and drove three abreast, blocking traffic and taking arrests. They jammed into Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; they slowed down the Port of Tampa, where fifty rigs sat idle in protest. Near Buffalo, one driver told the press he was taking the week off "to pray for the economy." 

The truckers who organized the protests - by CB radio and Internet - have a specific goal: reducing the price of diesel fuel. They are owner-operators, meaning they are also businesspeople, and they can't break even with current fuel costs. They want the government to release its fuel reserves. They want an investigation into oil company profits and government subsidies of the oil companies. Of the drivers I talked to, all were acutely aware that the government had found, in the course of a weekend, $30 billion to bail out Bear Stearns, while their own businesses are in a tailspin. 

Truck Drivers Block Freeway Traffic Across The US To Protest Soaring Fuel Prices

Media Release 

The Prime Minister 

15 April 2008  

A National Fuelwatch Scheme       

Federal Cabinet today approved the establishment of a National FuelWatch Scheme to promote competition and transparency in the petrol market. 

The establishment of Australia’s first National FuelWatch Scheme will help ensure motorists are not paying a cent more than they have to at the bowser. 

The National FuelWatch Scheme will help motorists buy the cheapest petrol, at the cheapest petrol stations, at the cheapest times. 

Under the National FuelWatch Scheme, petrol stations in metropolitan and major regional centres will be required to:  

Notify the ACCC of their next day’s prices by 2pm the day before;  

Maintain this advised price for a 24 hour period; and  Apply the scheme to unleaded petrol, premium unleaded petrol, LPG, diesel, 98 RON and biodiesel blends. 

The petrol price information collected from these petrol stations will be made available to consumers through: 

An email and SMS alert service informing subscribed consumers details of the cheapest fuel in their area;  

A national toll free number where motorists can locate the cheapest petrol in the area they are looking to purchase fuel: and  

A National FuelWatch website with station by station, day by day and suburb by suburb petrol price information. 

By giving motorists highly detailed and up to date information about local petrol prices, FuelWatch will help motorists avoid being ripped off. 

No longer will a motorist drive past a petrol station in the morning only to return in the afternoon to find a 10 cent per litre jump in the price of petrol. 

Importantly, FuelWatch will also see an end to Mums and Dads driving around on a Tuesday or Wednesday searching for the cheapest petrol. 

Rather than guessing the best time and the best place to buy petrol consumers will know where and when to buy the cheapest petrol in town. 

The restrictions included in the FuelWatch Scheme mean there is less flexibility for temporary upward and downward movements in prices. However according to the ACCC the effect of the scheme is that it forces retailers to post their most competitive price all day, everyday. 

Petrol prices will always be linked to fluctuations in international oil markets. If the global price of crude oil goes up Australian retail prices will be affected. 

The National FuelWatch Scheme is not a silver bullet that breaks this nexus; no government policy can guarantee that petrol prices will always go down. 

But FuelWatch will ensure that drivers don’t pay one cent more than they have to when filling up at the bowser. 

FuelWatch was introduced with bipartisan support in Western Australia in 2001 and has been a welcome tool for WA motorists looking to save money. 

Econometric analysis undertaken by the ACCC last year concluded that under the WA FuelWatch scheme the “relevant weekly average price margin was around 1.9 cpl [cents per litre] less on average”. 

The National FuelWatch Scheme is a key part of the Rudd Government’s response to the ACCC report into the price of unleaded petrol. The Scheme will cost $20.9 million over four years and commence on 15 December 2008. 

The extension of this scheme outside of metropolitan areas and major regional centres will be subject to negotiation between the ACCC and local Government authorities in rural areas. Rural local authorities will be able to opt in to the National FuelWatch Scheme – as they can under the WA FuelWatch model. 

The Government will review the effectiveness of the national FuelWatch Scheme twelve months after it operations commences. 

The ACCC will now begin working with petrol retailers to ensure a smooth transition to FuelWatch, and construct the supporting IT and communications infrastructure. 

The National Fuel Watch Scheme will build on the Government’s previous moves to give the ACCC formal monitoring powers and to appoint the nation’s first Petrol Commissioner. 

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That’ll learn ‘em Kev ….. Yessirree, invent a scheme that keeps consumers running hither & thither in the mistaken belief that they may be making a small saving in fuel costs, keeping them far too busy to worry about the real source of the problem – oil company profit gouging …. 

No action to reign-in the predatory pricing practices of the oil companies that fuelled the record US$127 billion in profits reaped by the 5 oil majors in 2007 (see ‘oily ways’) ….. & generated billions in windfall excise & GST revenue for the federal government’s trough …..  

Business as usual …. 

Thanks Kevin.

Iraq's Oil Ministry has approved 35 companies it will allow to bid for soon-to-be announced tenders to develop oil and gas fields. 

The largest oil companies in the world -- ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Conoco Phillips, Chevron -- all qualified, as did firms of a variety of sizes and nationalities. 

The announcement Monday on the ministry's Web site is a major move that could bring foreign oil companies en masse into Iraq since the third-largest oil sector in the world was nationalized three decades ago. 

It takes place as the ministry attempts to increase oil and gas production as a new law to govern the sector remains in dispute between the central and Kurdistan regional governments. 

The announcement said of the 120 companies or consortia that applied, 35 met the minimum criteria and "can then participate in the coming Licensing Round for planned Oil and Gas Fields which will be announced in due time when they will receive a Letter of Invitation from Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate to this effect." 

Iraq Qualifies 35 Companies For Oil Deals

Venezuela's parliament passed a law obliging oil companies to give windfall earnings to the leftist government when world prices are above $70 a barrel, a legislator said on Tuesday.

Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said the new law would bring in an estimated $9 billion annually at today's prices.

President Hugo Chavez, who has for years squeezed more revenue from oil companies operating in the OPEC nation and nationalized all foreign-run oil fields, wants the funds to be spent immediately on social programs in this election year.

Venezuela Approves $9 Billion Oil Windfall Profit Law

As governments appear to pamper the oil providers while siphoning our wallets, the mind boggles when one looks at the details of the well-oiled system.

Relative cost of unleaded petrol (unleaded gasoline)
Similar comparative costs for gas, for diesel and other fuels
(according to various government and petrol company rackets)

USA
US gallon (3.7 litres) US$3.29 = US$ 0.88 per litre

EUROPE
varies throughout but average estimate is
Litre Euro 1.4 (1 Euro = US$1.5) = US$ 2.10 per litre

Australia
Litre AUD 1.4 (1 AUD = US$ 0.9) = US$ 1.26 per litre

Thus Europeans economies pay on average 2.4 times more for their "oil-based" energy needs than the US. This has a very marked impact on the needs to economise, on the need to create new alternative energy sources and efficiency — and ultimately on the ability to compete, if fair competition is accepted as the rules of the game (competition being often mentioned, but may not be so "fair").

The massive profits of oil companies (including the Russian giant Gazprom) gazoodle from massive turnovers — accounting behemoths that would need whole divisions of bean counter brigades to deal with... For example Exxon tax bill for 2007 first three months was 24.47 trillion US dollars. Wow... This included income tax (6,78 trillions or 44 % of gross profits) as well as sales tax and others duties.

Yet the industry can cry poor returns in order to get subsidies, from governments, which in fact become like further tax rebates (Exxon income tax at 47 % in the first 3 months of 2006) ... while it spend in the first 3 months of 2007 a modest 4.22 trillion on capital and exploration.

And I penny pinch on filling up my lawn mower by not using it since I bought a push mower (I have reduced the size of the lawn to extend the vege patch)... So I must have lost the plot and the meaning of life... er I mean... the meaning of money... But imagine that from tomorrow every one uses only half the petrol we presently burn daily... Yes, Be more miser and more efficient and have less holidays abroad... Would the price of petrol go down by half or would the price go up as petro companies reduce the flow to maintain the demand versus supply ratio in a way that would still make the price go up? Like exclusive goods...

Changing a couple more light bulbs should make a difference...

Oil price passes $US115

The price of New York oil has crossed $US115 a barrel for the first time after the US Government reported falling energy inventories and as the US currency hit an all-time low against the euro.

New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, climbed $US1.28 to $US115.07 less than 25 minutes before the US market close.

The benchmark price has shot up more than $US52 from a year ago.

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Gus: in the analysis of the blog above the news above, should the Euro be weaker against the US dollar one would expect the ratio of 2.4 to reduce, but no.  This ratio has been quite constant over the years, thus the price of petrol per litre would go up at the pump. Simple siphoning of funds...