Tuesday 25 September 2012

Bloomberg Analysis of 60 Countries and their Gas Price Rankings

And people in North America thought we had it bad in terms of gas prices!

What we deal with in terms of gas prices pales in comparison to our friends in Europe. In North America anywhere between 20%-50% less than our European (and many Asian-Pacific) counterparts.

Canada comes in at #42 out of 60 countries on the most-expensive-gas rank, paying $5.46/gallon (
1.44US/litre - 1.40/litre CAD). One gallon is equal to 3.78541 litres. In terms of our "Pain at the Pump" ranking, we notch in at number 51/60. Gas prices here seem astronomically high compared to historic pricing per litre, but we aren't suffering nearly as much as much of the rest of the developed or developing world.
The Canadian government paid $2.19 billion to subsidize oil consumption in 2010. The average daily income is $141. The share of a day's wages needed to buy a gallon of gas is 3.9 percent.
The United States ranks #49 out of 60 countries (tied with Russia) on the most-expensive-gas rank, paying $3.75/gallon (That's $0.99 US per litre). Their pain at the pump rank is 55/60. They have it even better than Canada, as they pay less than half of what Europeans pay for gas.


The U.S. paid about $4.2 billion in 2010 to subsidize oil production and consumption. Gasoline taxes account for just 11 percent of the retail price of the fuel, compared with 60 percent in Britain.
The average daily income in the U.S. is $136, and the share of a day's wages needed to buy a gallon of gas is 2.8 percent.

Of not are the countries with the lowest prices per gallon:


  • United Arab Emirates ($1.89/gallon, #56 in the Most Expensive rating, #57 in the Pain rating)
  • Kuwait ($0.89/gallon, #58 in the Most Expensive rating, #59 in the Pain rating)
  • Saudi Arabia ($0.61/gallon, #59 in the Most Expensive rating, #58 in the Pain rating)
  • Venezuela ($0.09/gallon, #60 in the Most Expensive rating, #60 in the Pain rating). 

I vividly remember being shocked by the gas prices when I was lived in Venezuela. The first time I pulled into a gas station with my wife and her mother we filled up the tank. I did a quick conversion - and at that time it cost us about $1.30 to fill the whole tank. I was incredulous, to say the least. While I don't miss the highest murders-per-capita in the world thing (at the time), I must say I do miss the cheap oil - at those prices it may as well be free. 

Even with these low oil prices, Venezuela still boasts $88.13 billion in oil exports per year. They produce 2,881,000 barrels per day of crude oil, and have further reserves of 297.57 billion barrels. See more stats and figures here.
An interesting quote from the article:


The cost of filling up the 39-gallon tank of a Chevrolet Suburban in Venezuela is $3.51, compared with $146.25 in the U.S and $394.68 in Norway.

Living there was the first chance I had to see the world oil markets for what they are (a tool of the US Global Empire to further control and enslave the people of the world), and what Chavez (despite being demonized by Western media for his anti-American sentiments) has done for the people of his country. He may not be perfect, but nationalizing oil and kicking out foreign interests while simultaneously taking delivery on all Venezuelan gold and storing it in the country has positioned Venezuela very nicely for the new world economy we will see in the next few years.


But I digress...

To close, I will leave you with the chart from the end of the article. It shows the price per gallon that each respective country pays for gas, as well as their ranking in terms of "Pain at the Pump" - a measure and subsequent ranking of the percentage of daily income required to purchase 1 gallon of gas.

This Bloomberg index lists countries by gas price and by their residents' pain at the pump.Click here to view the full slideshow.

Price.....Country.............Pain Rank
$10.12...Norway......................#52
$9.41....Turkey........................#7
$9.28....Israel..........................#31
$8.61....Hong Kong.................#35
$8.26....Netherlands...............#41
$8.20....Denmark...................#47
$8.15....Italy............................#34
$8.14....Sweden......................#48
$7.92....Greece.......................#26
$7.87....United Kingdom.........#37
$7.79....France.......................#39
$7.77....Belgium.....................#42
$7.74....Germany....................#40
$7.72....Portugal.....................#23
$7.66....Switzerland................#53
$7.59....Finland.......................#45
$7.34....Ireland........................#44
$7.15....Japan.........................#46
$7.12....South Korea..............#30
$6.93....Slovakia.....................#21
$6.92....Brazil..........................#13
$6.79....Hungary.....................#15
$6.60....Malta..........................#27
$6.57....Slovenia.....................#32
$6.55....New Zealand............#43
$6.49....Austria.......................#49
$6.47....Spain.........................#36
$6.46....Czech Republic.........#25
$6.41....Australia.....................#54
$6.38....Luxembourg..............#56
$6.32....Lithuania....................#18
$6.15....Poland.......................#19
$6.13....Chile...........................#22
$6.12....Bulgaria......................#6
$6.08....Latvia.........................#17
$6.08....Singapore...................#50
$5.96....Colombia....................#10
$5.86....Cyprus.......................#38
$5.82....Argentina....................#16
$5.80....Estonia......................#24
$5.71....Romania....................#11
$5.46....Canada......................#51
$5.44....India...........................#1
$5.30....South Africa...............#12
$4.89....China..........................#8
$4.51....Thailand.....................#9
$4.42....Philippines.................#3
$3.85....Indonesia...................#5
$3.75....Russia.......................#33
$3.75....United States.............#55
$3.55....Pakistan.......................#2
$3.24....Mexico........................#29
$3.23....Malaysia.....................#28
$2.80....Iran.............................#20
$2.32....Nigeria........................#4
$1.89....United Arab Emirates..#57
$1.73....Egypt..........................#14
$0.89....Kuwait........................#59
$0.61....Saudi Arabia..............#58
$0.09....Venezuela..................#60

(Credit: Bloomberg.com)

View the article in its entirety here.

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