The price of petrol - not doing quite what was expected

[SmallmanA]

(Wasn't sure where to post this so popped it here). Leaving aside the politics of Brexit, one widely held and logical assumption was that weaker sterling (-12% vs the dollar since Brexit) would drive up inflation (whether it's fancy-dan rearsets from the US or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups they should, in theory, now cost you 12% more. If you ate more of the latter then you'd likely need a new spring rate too...).

Dollar-denominated petrol is arguably the most significant household item. But inflation doesn't seemed to have happened here. If you priced a barrel of Brent in sterling on June 24 - Brexit day - then it was ?35.30. Today it's ?33.60. Pump prices are, I think, slightly lower, no? Honestly, I've no idea why I've written this given I've never ridden my bikes more or less because of the prices at the pump. And I'm not sure anyone owning an S1000 RR cares that much about MPG, right?

Mind you, if overseas track days climb then in theory we'd be paying ?72 more on a ?599 event.

 

[DoubleRDurham]

Although I could quite literally not care less about the price of fuel in the context of overall motorcycling costs, I enjoyed reading this post.

 

[soofsayer]

My opinion is that sterling was overvalued before the brexit vote and was in need of a correction. This has huge benefits for exporters. Sterling will probably recover a fair amount, particularly against the euro in the coming months.

 

[soofsayer]

And on fuel prices - fuel is bought way ahead of current prices using futures markets so there is usually a 3 - 6 month delay in significant price changes.

 

[alex]

True but they're never slow to add cost to the pump usually

 

[Mick753]

And on fuel prices - fuel is bought way ahead of current prices using futures markets so there is usually a 3 - 6 month delay in significant price changes.

You'd be surprised at how quickly or slowly fuel is bought and sold actually

In places such as Fujairah out in the Gulf of Oman it's not uncommon to see scores of tankers all at anchor for weeks on end waiting for the markets to hit the right price before loading up and setting off to wherever it's destined for. Even tankers that are waiting a berth to unload their own refined fuels will be kept at anchor by the cargo owner until such time as the market price is right. The whole industry is a stocks and shares game.

The shipping industry is a massive force that is involved heavily in the market prices for oil especially where it is being transported.

You have the ship owner, the freight agent and the cargo owner and all of them work together to get the best possible price for whatever is loaded, where oil and fuel is concerned that just adds another potential for throttling the market demand to suit their supply.

 

[MacRR]

True but they're never slow to add cost to the pump usually

Agreed, setting aside the valid points made above you'd have thought the fuel companies would have capitalised on the perception that fuel would go up because of the weak ? v $ and cynically stuck the pump prices in the UK up anyway.

 

[soofsayer]

Agreed, setting aside the valid points made above you'd have thought the fuel companies would have capitalised on the perception that fuel would go up because of the weak ? v $ and cynically stuck the pump prices in the UK up anyway.

Majority of fuel is sold through supermarkets these days. Also the retail market for fuel is highly competitive so one brand/business putting up prices when no body else is would be unwise.

 

[MacRR]

Yeah but July saw the worst supermarket sales for 2 years and downward pressure on food pricing remains, fuel is where supermarkets are making a lot of money. I also see Shell's results are out today and are comparatively poor, wouldn't be at all surprised to see prices pump prices going up..

 

[TheFlymo]

And I'm not sure anyone owning an S1000 RR cares that much about MPG, right?

Au contraire sir! Was genuinely flabbergasted when I realised the S1K is capable of hitting a real 50mpg. I dream of 40mpg on my VFR800....

Actually you're right, if a litre of fuel cost ?50 and a pint of blood, I'd still fill up (then faint).

 

[andyf]

And I'm not sure anyone owning an S1000 RR cares that much about MPG, right?

When you're in the middle of nowhere in Northern Spain with 40 miles back to civilisation, 20 miles range showing on your dash and the petrol station that your satnav knew about but the locals didn't isn't there, you care very much about mpg. Didn't give a monkeys how much the fuel cost, but range (which with a fixed tank capacity is determined solely by mpg) was very much on my mind.
Somehow managed 196.2 miles on a single tank and managed to get 17.77 litres into the 17.5 litre tank when we got to the petrol station.

 

[alex]

The range thing is a total crock. If I stop when the light comes (~30miles to go) then I can invariably only get in a max of 13L...which means there's over a gallon still inside. So by my man maths at 0miles of range I have 15-20 left.