Honked off by American pump prices? Cheer up. You could be commuting in Oslo, Norway, where gasoline costs $9.85 a gallon and filling up a Mini Cooper would set you back $130.
That’s the priciest petrol on a list of world gas prices released last week by Associates for International Research Inc., or AIRINC, a Massachusetts-based relocation consulting firm that tracks the cost of living in dozens of countries.
In fact, at just over four bucks a gallon on average, U.S. gas is still cheap compared with much of the world.
“It’s small consolation, I know,” said Michael Shore, a senior manager at the consulting firm. But “the prices that (Americans) are paying now, Europeans have been paying for a long time.”
And it’s not just Europe. People all over the world are shelling out more for gas than Americans — who are considerably wealthier.
That includes drivers in the East African nation of Eritrea ($9.46 a gallon), Kenya ($5.94), Nicaragua ($5.07), India ($4.94), Chile ($4.85) and El Salvador ($4.70).
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 do.
There also are motorists who pay considerably less than American drivers. The world’s lowest-priced gasoline can be found in oil-rich Venezuela, where gas is 12 cents a gallon and you can fill a Hummer for the less than the price of a Big Mac hamburger.
Why the big price differences around the world? Experts say retail gas 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 gasoline heavily; others subsidize it to make it cheap.
Many countries choose the former. In the United States, state and local taxes account for about 19 percent of the average price of a gallon of gas, according to the Energy Information Administration. In England, where London drivers are paying nearly $9 a gallon, taxes account for 81.5 percent of the pump price.
European countries have long relied on hefty fuel levies to fund road work and social programs, and to encourage conservation. The same is true for some Asian nations, including South Korea ($7.33 a gallon) and Japan ($6.30) — both of which import 100 percent of their crude.
The philosophy is different in oil-rich countries that subsidize fuel as a way to share the wealth and keep citizens happy. Drivers pay less than 50 cents a gallon when they fill up in Saudi Arabia and Iran. Venezuela spends an estimated $11 billion subsidizing gasoline.
But whether it is individuals or governments picking up the tab, the fallout from exploding crude prices is being felt around the globe.
Some consumers in Europe are screaming at their legislators to lower fuel taxes. Truckers in Britain have staged three protests this year in response to the soaring cost of diesel, which is nearing $10 a gallon. Angry fishermen in France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Belgium have staged similar demonstrations.
While many Americans may go a few miles out of their way to find the cheapest fill-up, Dutch trucker Patrick Leen ders, 39, heads to another country. Diesel in his hometown is around $9.24 a gallon. His route often takes him out of the Netherlands. So he keeps enough fuel in the tank to reach Luxembourg, 155 miles away, where diesel is $7.57 a gallon.
The pain is especially cruel in the developing world, where people such as Gorette Odaga, 33, a Kenyan woman who has never owned a car, are still getting slammed by rising costs.
A beautician in Nairobi, Odaga has been the sole breadwinner for her three children since her husband died in 2003. Daily round-trip bus fare for the kids to get to school has nearly tripled in the past year to $1.54 — an impossible increase on top of rising costs for food and cooking fuel.
It’s much the same in Mogadishu, Somalia, where diesel fuel now tops $5 a gallon, a small fortune in that impoverished country. Jitney drivers sometimes charge one price in the morning and a higher price in the afternoon to cover the climbing cost of fill-ups.
Consumers have it somewhat easier in nations where fuel is heavily subsidized. But the international price of crude has ballooned so quickly that some governments are paring back assistance.
China recently raised retail gasoline prices by 16 percent and diesel by 18 percent. Gasoline costs $3.40 in Beijing, according to AIRINC.
In Mexico, it’s the opposite. Consumers are snapping up used SUVs and full-sized trucks from the United States. Gas costs about $2.62 a gallon in much of the country, making those gas guzzlers affordable.
But the trend is worrying the Mexican treasury. Fuel consumption is soaring. Mexico will spend about $20 billion on gasoline and diesel subsidies in 2008 — about six times what it spends on defense. Some public officials have already declared the subsidies unsustainable.
