Is the Petrol increase a Con

[DragonLogos]

A good few people I know have been moaning about the 60 cents increase, so it was good to see that a newspaper had picked up on it as well, with some interesting points raised. Could SASOL be involved, they are on record as supplying 40% of SA petrol, either directly or through blending

Maybe even a poll to see what ppl here think

Here is a link to the Business Day Article

Petrol price increase disputed

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/economy.aspx?ID=BD4A931185

SOUTH African petroleum retailers have reinvigorated suspicions of the manipulation of petrol and diesel prices, following the announcement of this week’s increase in the retail price of petrol despite relatively low international oil prices

 

[Moederloos]

The formula and input data is widely known - were it a "con", some hot-shot bean counter would have released believable proof by now.

 

[jvk]

grrrrrr SASOL YOU SUCK !!!!!!

 

[marine1]

Hold on so petrol is going up by 60 cents? Is that right?
Cannot access the article
What did I say last year? I knew it would happen what a joke.

 

[CathJ]

What people also forget is that it depends on two factors: oil price, and exchange rate. And not at the time they make decision, either, but over the whole of the last month.

I agree that sometimes it does seem a bit wrong, but it's a fairly complex calculation. I wouldn't be surprised if our instincts are sometimes wrong.

 

[boramk]

Erm, exhcange rate and oil prices are the same as last month

 

[DBoy_25]

They are almost basically the same price as last month. There must be a CON somewhere!!

 

[BTTB]

I caught something on the radio about refining and/or supply?

It just sounds so believable that the consumer is being ripped off yet again.

Take things like chemical fertilisers which is a by product of the petroluem process that rocketed 100% last year when the Dollar Oil price spiked up to $147 a barrel. Now that the price is more than a $100 cheaper, actually less than what it was before the start of 2008, prices have not come down.

Even the price of packaging. Here Sasol plays a big role as they set the price of the raw materials used. Prices went up last year, yet I am still to hear the price is coming down?

In my own Business, my suppliers hiked their Transport Price from 10% to 15% on Invoice Value last year because of the fuel price. This year all I hear is silence.

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

Well it depends when they decided to increase or decrease the oil price. According to historical data, the prices in late January/ early February are slightly more than in most of January.

1/4/2009 Sunday 9.66797 ZAR USD ZAR rate for
1/5/2009 Monday 9.30055 ZAR USD ZAR rate for 1/5/2009
1/6/2009 Tuesday 9.34625 ZAR USD ZAR rate for 1/6/2009
1/7/2009 Wednesday 9.45970 ZAR USD ZAR rate for 1/7/2009
1/8/2009 Thursday 9.64935 ZAR USD ZAR rate for 1/8/2009

1/26/2009 Monday 10.12023 ZAR USD ZAR rate
1/27/2009 Tuesday 9.98295 ZAR USD ZAR rate for 1/27/2009
1/28/2009 Wednesday 9.90827 ZAR USD ZAR rate for 1/28/2009
1/29/2009 Thursday 9.97381 ZAR USD ZAR rate for 1/29/2009
1/30/2009 Friday 10.21818 ZAR USD ZAR rate for 1/30/2009
1/31/2009 Saturday 9.96283 ZAR USD ZAR rate for 1/31/2009
2/1/2009 Sunday 9.96283 ZAR USD ZAR rate for 2/1/2009
2/2/2009 Monday 10.18391 ZAR USD ZAR rate for 2/2/2009

 

[Ady]

The thing that gets me is when companies are caught price fixing they pay huge fines when the consumer who has been ripped off doesn't get any kick back what so ever regarding price. I can understand that fertilizer and other by products don't come down immediately as the current stocks were produced when oil was as a higher price, not to say this is always the case IMO both government and oil companies milk the hell out of us.

 

[Balstrome]

And there is nothing you can do about it, except complain on the net and in radio shows, you are all powerless. There is a solution, but it involves a large amount of effort and work to really get prices down to acceptable levels.

What really make me shake my head, is all these high end cars cramming at the petrol station to fill up before the price increase. If you had to go to each of the owners and ask them how much they are actually saving by doing that, 99.9 % of them will not know.
They are only doing it because that is the responsible sheeple thing to do. Going the other way, ask these fools, if they ever speed on the highways, and the answer is of course yes. My point is that speeding gains them almost the same amount of value in time saved as filling the tank before price increases.

 

[JungleBoy]

What about the fact that South African media always show us prices of Brent crude when in fact our petrol price is not even based on the price of Brent crude?

 

[stix]

What about the fact that South African media always show us prices of Brent crude when in fact our petrol price is not even based on the price of Brent crude?

+1

 

[Ady]

What about the fact that South African media always show us prices of Brent crude when in fact our petrol price is not even based on the price of Brent crude?

Excuse my ignorance but what is our petrol price based on then? Economists are always mentioning the price of brent crude and the rand dollar exchange rate when being interviewed on the news?

They really have us by the short and curlies!

 

[JungleBoy]

Excuse my ignorance but what is our petrol price based on then? Economists are always mentioning the price of brent crude and the rand dollar exchange rate when being interviewed on the news?

They really have us by the short and curlies!

If I'm not mistaken it's called OPEC Reference Index or something like that