Fuel Prices

[harold]

My boat is a little too big to drag behind a car so i leave it at Akuna Bay where they do a good job of looking after it. I filled up last weekend and the price down there was $1.98 a litre (it took 168 litres). Having heard today that the price of oil has jumped to new heights yet again, i was wondering at what point does price become unacceptable? I was chatting to the boat sales guy down there the other day and they said there are people calling to sell their boats every day, they say people are not buying large boats and they have never had so many boats listed for sale.

I was wondering, what fuel prices you guys have seen around the water?

[netic]

My boat is a little too big to drag behind a car so i leave it at Akuna Bay where they do a good job of looking after it. I filled up last weekend and the price down there was $1.98 a litre (it took 168 litres). Having heard today that the price of oil has jumped to new heights yet again, i was wondering at what point does price become unacceptable? I was chatting to the boat sales guy down there the other day and they said there are people calling to sell their boats every day, they say people are not buying large boats and they have never had so many boats listed for sale.

I was wondering, what fuel prices you guys have seen around the water?

Hi Harold,

mate i bought my boat with the 70hp for that reason exactly, i was planning to buy a bigger boat this year but have now axed the idea due to the cost of fuel,

It cost me between $40 to $80 per trip now, if i got an offshore boat i am sure that will go up to $80 to $140 per trip, to expensive for my blood.

[Outnumbered]

boat pooling seems to be a great way to get around it a bit, with the variety of boats that fishraiders own its not too hard a job to organise the "right" boat for the trip (why use an offshore beast for a bream session?) and having fellow raiders along not only provides great company but eases the burden by splitting the costs.

[OWZAT]

G`day Fellas ,

According to a Doco ( 4 Corners ABC ) monday Night , things look pretty bleak .

It appears that by 2011 , all known large wells world wide which have already begun to dry up , will have just about gone dry , and unless they find some more as yet undiscovered fields , this is the end.

They blame lack of investment back in the good old days , when the Oil companies just raked it all in , and spent nothing looking for more , because they belived it was a bottomless pit and would never run dry.

The current oil prices they said , are being forced up by the Middle East conflict , and a general downturn in the Global economy.

The greatest threat to all is , of course China`s 2 billion odd inhabitants wanting now , what the world has had for 80 years .

Cars , boats , houses , hot and cold running water , etc, etc, but I watched in disbelief as the presenter interviwed a Futures Speculator who said that they fully expected oil to be $3.00 to $4.00 dollars a litre at the ossie Pumps within a year as if expected , Oil continues to climbs to 200 to 350 Dollars US a barrel.

Fellas , Even allowing for the normal beat ups by various Doco Makers , things look extremely Bad either way.

Mick

[pjbink]

I saw the 4 Corners report too. They admitted that the bleak picture they portrayed is a minoritory view and not one backed by oil companies and government economic forecasters. The mainstream view is that we are 30 or more years away from peak oil and there is likely to be a long plateau before production declines. Also you must remember that the oil prices harldly moved for twenty years so it was grossly underpriced compared to everything else that has gone up over this period. Also the rising oil price is part of the general commodities boom driven by strong world growth, which is a huge shot in the arm for our resource based economy. This is why states like Qld and WA are booming and the the Federal governments coffers are full and they can afford to hand money back in the form of tax cuts and middle class welfare. The resources boom is main reason for our stock market making 20% plus returns for 3 years in a row and even if you don't own shares directly your super will be doing very well. So all in all I wouldn't be complaining about the price of fuel too much.

Also the price of fuel, if sustained, is getting to a point where alternatives become viable. As the head of ABARE said " If eggs become expensive enough even roosters will start laying them". Alternatives already exist such as bio- fuels like ethanol, also gas, coal liquifaction, oil tar sands etc. Plus there is still the chance of major new discoveries. Deep water drilling technology has advanced to a point where oil can be extracted from depths unheard of a few years ago. It is estimated that if you added up all the oil reserves that have ever existed (including less conventional heavy oil and oil tar sands) plus gas reserves (which are a direct substitute for oil), there is still 82% of which has not yet been consumed.

Edited July 15, 2006 by billfisher