Expensive Petrol

Where is the most expensive petrol in the UK?

The quick answer is that the most expensive petrol is often in Stornoway or the Isle of Lewis.
To find the most expensive petrol in the UK you tend to have to look at the more rural areas, generally if you find yourself in a remote part of the countryside with only a couple of independant garages to choose from then you can expect to pay a lot more for your petrol. However some rural places are more expensive that others, for example Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland boasts (?) a price of 148p/Litre in July 2011 which was a whopping 12p a litre more than the national average and the Shetland Isle prices were breaching 1 pound fifty for unleaded petrol. At the same time the prices in Snowdon national part were only 5p more expensive than the national average.

Why do some places have expensive petrol?

The rural petrol prices may be high because there is a captive market there and so the fuel stations can easily extract more money from the motorist who doesn't have any other choice. However it is far more likely that a combination of higher overheads and lack of negotiating power with the oil companies is the real culprits.
The more remote petrol stations also tend to suffer from a low volume of customers so their overheads as a proportion of sales are much much higher than a petrol station on a busy A-road. They also tend not to pick up as much 'cross-selling' of products such as snacks and groceries thus eating into their profit margins further.
In the case of Stornoway and the Shetland Isles the expensive petrol can probably be explained by all these factors and also by the fact that the petrol has to be transported across water.

What about expensive petrol brands?

The common petrol oil company petrol brands tend to have the most expensive fuel, with the likes of BP and Shell charging on average around 2p more than the national average, compared to the supermarkets that charge around 2p less than the national average. These expensive petrol brands claim to offer a better quality fuel and sometimes even more miles to the gallon out of their standard petrol. This may well be the case but it is difficult to verify, especially since all cars are slightly different when it comes to which fuel performs best.

Why is petrol so expensive?

Petrol is made from oil, which is dug up from the ground, often underwater, and then transported halfway across the world. The oil is then refinedin petroleum so that it is suitable for use in a car, before being transported to the garages where you buy it. Its hardly suprisingly that petrol is expensive when you think about it like this. However it is suprising that this whole process isn't the most expensive part of petrol! The taxes that the UK government make up 60% of the price of a litre of fuel, which means that those taxes are making your petrol more than two and a half times as expensive to buy. Without the taxes petrol would be no where near as expensive as it is at the moment.
 
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