Gas prices in US: Are gas prices more expensive in other countries?

While rising before the war in Ukraine, the Russian invasion has turned commodity prices upside down, especially for those nations that are sanctioning them. On Friday, the Department of Labor published its latest inflation figures for the month of May, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rising by a whole percent in a single month.

At the forefront of this inflation is the price of energy, which has surged nearly 35 percent since May 2021. Inflationary pressures and supply chain issues have seen the cost of many essential products rise considerably in the past six months, but the recent ban on Russian oil and gas has seen the price of gasoline rise even higher.

Which countries have the most expensive gasoline?

While people living in the US may think they have it bad, and in relative terms they do, there is a much bleaker future for nations that have to near exclusively import their fuel. The price of a gallon of fuel in Europe has gone crazy, forcing many countries to bring in radical policies in an effort to stifle the price rise.

Using data from globalpetrolprices.com, these are the ten nations with the most expensive gallon of fuel as of June 6, 2022.

Using this dataset, the US has the 97th most expensive fuel in the world.

Europe is particularly badly hit by the price rises as the continent bar a couple of nations, has sanctioned Russia, their primary energy partner. For example, the EU imports 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia. Alongside this, 13 of the EU 27 import at least 20 percent of their oil from Russia. Cutting themselves off from this market is a major factor in the energ price rises.

Which countries have the cheapest gasoline?

Using the same website as a measure, these are the top ten nations with the cheapest gasoline per US gallon. Data is from June 6, 2022.

Why do these countries have such cheap fuel? For one, they all have vast oil reserves. Alongside this, the three cheapest of Venezuela, Libya, and Iran, all have difficulties exporting their produce, either through war or sanctions imposed by the US. This means more of the fuel is available for public consumption and isn’t exported. The crisis in Ukraine also gives oil exporters more power to export their fuel at a higher price abroad, keepign costs down at home.