Gas Prices in China and India

[Newborn]

Just wondering if anyone knows what they're paying for gas in China and India, and if it's the equivalent of $4 per gallon, how the heck are they managing to use so much (as the MSM has told us they are) when most of their people are so poor?

[tygerkittn]

I remember reading that China has government gas price controls, and they force them to sell at a certain price, even if they're losing money, and won't let them close down. It's a big problem for refineries etc.

[Issachar]

I don't know what they pay and I definitely don't know how to do the conversion to USD. But I still never see any reports anywhere indicating that that there is a shortage anywhere. Here in the US we can buy gasoline, provided we can afford it, anytime we want. No lines (unless a station is .25+ lower than an areas going rate :) ) That's why I don't think more refineries are going to change anything. Do we need some just for backup? Probably. But there is no current problem that will be alleviated by more of them. Often heard is, "We haven't built a new refinery in 30 years!" :idunno

I asked this somewhere else the other day. One thing mentioned was the switch over from Winter gasoline to Summer gasoline and vice versa could be cushioned if there were more refining capacity which makes some sense, but even during switch over I've not seen or heard of shortages.

As far as China's usage is concerned .... many of the people are poor, but there are plenty that are doing well and industrial growth is out of this world over there.

Issachar

[HisAlways]

Most of China and India work right here at my company.

[Issachar]

Most of China and India work right here at my company.
LOL!

Not quite true though. GEMS sent all their contract assembly work to China which shut down the company I worked for, for 20 years. So they are either here taking jobs or they are there and taking jobs. sigh ...

Issachar

[MasterDummy]

Chinese government has kept the retail price of gasoline at about $2.60 a gallon, up just 9% from January 2007.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-chinagasoline9-2008jun09,0,7248199.story?track=rss
India pays $5.15
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_usage_and_pricing

[SumSam]

INDIA TAKES A BATH IN OIL SUBSIDIES (http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=16656)

INDIA TAKES A BATH IN OIL SUBSIDIES

One of the largest distortions in the energy industry today is the widespread use of state subsidies to decrease prices for consumers in India, Venezuela, China, Taiwan and beyond, says Manjeet Kripalani of BusinessWeek. These state subsidies, while lowering prices for consumers, are rapidly running oil companies into bankruptcy.

For example:

The Indian government has insisted that its oil companies subsidize all the gasoline, diesel and cooking oil it sells, so much that prices are a third cheaper at the pump in India than they are in the United States.

Since the oil that Indian companies such as Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum purchase abroad is so much more expensive than what it sells at home, the companies lose money every time they makes a sale.

Although Indian Oil is India's largest state-controlled refiner of oil, with $59 billion in revenue, they are running losses of $76 million a day, and will run through their line of credit of $21.4 billion by July.

No such thing as a free lunch, goes to show.

[tygerkittn]

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/National/Mexican_Gas.html

It's $2.54 in Mexico, if anyone lives near the border!