First of all, feel free to ignore my first point if you wish. I only make this as an Englishman, and as a required rant for any thread where American word are used in the English language. It doesn't really matter anyway, but here goes. Gas is not petrol. The word for fuel that comes from oil, in English, is petrol. Gas, in the English language, is a state of matter, like liquid or solid, and usually refers to oxygen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, etc. at room temperature. The USA has it wrong!Saucycardog said:
Okay, and now onto the main point, which is worth listening to. Petrol prices are set by a free market, and that market is dominated by OPEC. OPEC is basically a consortium of corporations and countries that have high amounts of oil produced, mainly Middle Eastern and North African countries, such as Libya. Libya produce roughly 1-2% of the oil used in the modern world now, and in fact not all types of oil are used for the same things. Some countries produce oil that is better for, say, making plastic, while other countries produce oil that's better for refining and using as petrol. Here in the UK we tend to mostly use North Sea oil for our fuel.
However, when there's any sort of threat to supplies anywhere, OPEC tends to drive prices right up. The reason for this? Mainly greed. They don't have to, but they see an excuse and use it to drive prices up to make more profit for their member countries/companies. This causes the global oil price to rise, which in turn increases the price of oil by-products, most noticeably, petrol. It really is that simple. Regardless of how much oil you get from Libya, prices will go up because it's a global market, dominated by one big group who act as a monopoly, and that affects everyone.
