(published April 6, 2015)

Although most countries have access to international crude oil markets (with prices set against recognized benchmarks), what end-consumers pay for petroleum products varies substantially across countries and regions. One factor are the refining costs each liter of gasoline or diesel is associated with, another are the costs of downstream activities (for instance, distribution and marketing). Perhaps the largest difference between rates in different fuel markets comes from taxes, duties, environmental surcharges and other levies imposed by national and local authorities. As a rule of thumb, European countries have high taxation factored in retail prices while in the United States what you pay at the pump depends primarily on crude oil prices.

In the chart below, we show the composition of retail (end-consumer) prices of gasoline in a number of selected countries. In the US, Australia and Germany, gasoline sold at fuel stations comes blended with various shares of ethanol, usually up to 10% by volume. Experts and consumers commonly refer to this blend as E10. In Brazil, gasoline contains up to 27% ethanol, according to Petrobras, the national oil conglomerate.



To see the latest retail gasoline prices around the world please visit this page.