Originally Posted by
WR6133
While I don't disagree, petrol price is not directly linked to oil price. The way I understand it they are wholesaled differently, or to describe it an oil company may pull some black stuff out the ground somewhere, that may then get sold to another company that turns it in to various products, the same oil company (retail arm) may then buy the petrol that is made from the oil they pulled out in the 1st place. So the company flogging you the fuel may have also pulled the oil out the ground but the actual price of the product you purchase is also influenced by whatever company refined it. So while it should fluctuate up or down (though not in anything approaching real time) based on the price of it's key ingredient (oil) you are relying on a number of "middlemen" to reflect that drop at a couple of stages before it gets to you..... as with anything where extra links in the chain are making a profit they will be eager to quickly pass on a price increase but much less eager to pass on the drops, preferring to pocket it as extra profit. That's the way a family member who used to work on the exploration side of the industry explained it to me once, he may have been over simplifying it for me though.