From PUNCH

With a pump price of N145 ($0.40) per litre, Nigeria has been ranked as the eighth cheapest place in the world to buy petrol.

Other countries among the cheapest places to buy petrol are Venezuela ($0.01), Turkmenistan ($0.29), Kuwait ($0.35), Iran ($0.36), Egypt ($0.37), Algeria ($0.37), Ecuador ($0.39), Bahrain ($0.42) and Syria ($0.44).

The average price of petrol around the world is $1.12 (N403.2) per litre, according to GlobalPetrolPrices.com, which publishes data on retail fuel prices around the world and tracking over 150 countries on a weekly basis.

In its latest weekly global fuel price review (January 2, 2018), it noted that the international oil benchmark, Brent crude, reached $66.9 per barrel during the past week.

“The crude oil price increase pushed up the retail fuel prices around the world and the world average gasoline (petrol) price increased to a level of $1.09 per litre. The world average diesel price also went up by a cent,” it stated.

The report noted that the beginning of 2018 was marked by retail fuel price changes in many countries with regulated fuel markets, but the most significant petrol price change was observed in Algeria, where the government approved a 17.5 per cent increase of the official annual retail price of petrol.

It said the European average petrol price was $1.46 per litre, marking a 0.5 per cent weekly increase.

Petrol prices also went up by 1.2 per cent in the United States; 0.9 per cent in Africa; 0.7 per cent in Asia; and 0.4 per cent in Canada. But in Australia, petrol prices decreased by 1.3 per cent, while the average regional petrol price of South America remained unchanged compared to the previous week.

There was a decrease in 13 of the 107 reviewed countries, no change in 54 countries, and an increase in 40 countries.

Petrol prices went down by more than one per cent in Finland, Cape Verde, Australia, the Cayman Islands and South Africa, while the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, France, and Pakistan saw more than three per cent increase in prices.

The report said, “As a general rule, richer countries have higher prices, while poorer countries and the countries that produce and export oil have significantly lower prices. One notable exception is the US, which is an economically advanced country but has low gas prices.

“The differences in prices across countries are due to the various taxes and subsidies for gasoline (petrol). All countries have access to the same petroleum prices of international markets but then decide to impose different taxes. As a result, the retail price of gasoline is different.”

Copyright PUNCH.

IMAGE: ’Femi Asu

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