British media is buzzing about a recent report that petroleum (that’s gas in Brit-speak) could soon be cheaper than bottled water as a result of plummeting fuel prices worldwide.
Crude oil prices at $30 a barrel, the lowest since 2004, and average gasoline and diesel prices are 1.025 pounds per liter and 1.032 pounds per liter, respectively, dropping below 1 pound per liter (a little more than a quarter of a gallon) in some areas for the first time since 2009. So to say gas is pretty cheap by U.K. standards would be an understatement.
As a result of these falling prices, the cost of a liter of petroleum is catching up to the price of a liter of water, according to a report by the Telegraph, which concludes that the current oil crisis should keep fuel prices low through 2016.
You might be saying to yourself, “OK, gas is more expensive than bottled water, what’s the news here? I paid a buck-93 a gallon at the pump and I bought this Voss inside the convenience store for $5.”
Two things: One, don’t do that. Second, yes, your math is correct, Will Hunting. It’s already much more expensive to buy bottled water in the U.S. than it is to buy gas. Even a $1 bottle of Poland Springs adds up to $8 a gallon, and that’s before the bottle deposit.
However, given the fact that the pound sterling has 1.44-times the buying power of the U.S. dollar, a gallon of this historically-cheap petrol in the U.K. would run you about $5.45. Mass rioting and revolt would spread across the States the second a gas station flashed that kinda number on a billboard, but considering U.K. prices were up near $7 per gallon just last year, $5.45 ain’t bad.
So, if anything, this highlights the fact that Brits are more willing to suffer through high fuel taxes while us Americans won’t have any of that. We need that extra cash to buy water in glass bottles.
