Petrol Stations Under Siege

[george]

Filling stations under siege

Drivers, farmers vie for last drop at lower prices

The increase in fuel prices averaging Bt1.55 per litre coming into effect today sent many people scrambling to fill their tanks yesterday.

Long queues of motorists formed at petrol stations, prompting many to impose purchase limits and some to put up "sold out" signs, while provincial authorities were on alert to check for pre-emptive price hikes or hoarding.

In Songkhla many filling stations in Muang and Hat Yai districts put a limit of Bt2,000 per customer and would not fill 200-litre containers. Many hung "sold out" signs.

Songkhla Internal Trade Office chief Ratree Dabsok said she had checked on Muang district petrol stations and found no hoarding. She said most had the normal amount of 10,000 litres for a 10-day sales period, though many had run dry.

However, the border district of Sadao appeared unaffected as supplies were getting through from Malaysia, a local source said yesterday, urging checks on fuel quality as some stations there were mixing in cheaper smuggled petrol.

Runs were on in Yala, Surat Thani, Uttaradit, Nan, Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son, Surin, Khon Kaen, Nakhon Ratchasima, Phichit and Phitsanulok.

Phitsanulok saw farmers from other districts loading 200-litre tanks onto their pickup trucks to fill up at some 20 stations in Muang district, only to be turned down because there was not enough to go round. Farmer Sorn Deechaona from Kong Krailas district said that he had prepared four 200-litre tanks to buy diesel in Muang district to fuel his rice-field water pumps.

Phisanulok Internal Trade Office chief Ubolrat Ratchasaenmuang said officials had inspected filling stations and found no wrongdoing so far but would inspect stocks at midnight to prepare for today's repricing, a measure envisaged for all 18,787 stations nationwide to prevent hoarding.

The National Energy Policy Committee on Thursday announced a Bt1.55-per-litre price rise for all types of fuel except gasohol E85 effective from today. Energy Minister Wannarat Charn-nukul, the committee's chairman, said this was to stagger the full increase in pump prices, which would go up no more than Bt1.50 per litre in the subsequent round.

He had said it should take two months for pump prices to come in line with higher excise and that the Oil Fund would need to spend Bt3.5 billion to Bt4 billion on subsidies.

-- The Nation 2009-02-01

[neverdie]

So its like an extra tax, a levy. This type of thing will be going on around the world as governments try to grapple with conditions in these economic times...eventually all taxes will have to increase to help at least try & pay for this mess....that is depite what many governments are promising in the immediate future with certain tax cuts to encourage spending.

None of this should be very surprising to any of us....In one hand the Govt give its people a break (Free & half priced water and electricity) and in the other hand they increase fuel levies & taxes.

Have the people really forgotten the expensive fuel prices of just 6 months ago?

[mrsouza]

In case you were worried about those poor oil companies in these hard times.

Exxon Mobil beats own record earnings with $45.2 billion profit for 2008

Chevron's annual profit soars to record

[jopham]

Have the people really forgotten the expensive fuel prices of just 6 months ago?

That is why they trying to fillup or hoared a much as possible. I have a small farm and use about 800 liters of diesel a week and to save 1.55 baht per liter is fair bit.

[Mali1964]

So its like an extra tax, a levy. This type of thing will be going on around the world as governments try to grapple with conditions in these economic times...eventually all taxes will have to increase to help at least try & pay for this mess....that is depite what many governments are promising in the immediate future with certain tax cuts to encourage spending.

None of this should be very surprising to any of us....In one hand the Govt give its people a break (Free & half priced water and electricity) and in the other hand they increase fuel levies & taxes.

Have the people really forgotten the expensive fuel prices of just 6 months ago?

This increase is to return the duty back to its original level, it was part of the same incentive you mention (free water & Electric) that the Samak Government gave his people when the oil price started to get out of control,so it as been expected & it was more than anything my country did in the UK were duty counts for around 80% of the pump price, at least the Thai Government did give some help with that oil crisis & has most my family are Farmers it was very much appreciated too.

[TJAN]

So its like an extra tax, a levy. This type of thing will be going on around the world as governments try to grapple with conditions in these economic times...eventually all taxes will have to increase to help at least try & pay for this mess....that is depite what many governments are promising in the immediate future with certain tax cuts to encourage spending.

None of this should be very surprising to any of us....In one hand the Govt give its people a break (Free & half priced water and electricity) and in the other hand they increase fuel levies & taxes.

Have the people really forgotten the expensive fuel prices of just 6 months ago?

This increase is to return the duty back to its original level, it was part of the same incentive you mention (free water & Electric) that the Samak Government gave his people when the oil price started to get out of control,so it as been expected & it was more than anything my country did in the UK were duty counts for around 80% of the pump price, at least the Thai Government did give some help with that oil crisis & has most my family are Farmers it was very much appreciated too.

You are absolute right,and more then my country Holland did to.

[neverdie]

Well now that you have educated me to this.....I will agree with you because its more than my home country did as well.

One thing that doesnt change around the world is the farmers always seem to do it tough

[animatic]

In case you were worried about those poor oil companies in these hard times.

Exxon Mobil beats own record earnings with $45.2 billion profit for 2008

Chevron's annual profit soars to record

Yes, the quid pro quo for Bush's 8 years,

payable in his last year as a lame duck,

to his daddy's oil buddies world wide.

And dam_n the consequences.

This was the tipping point for ALL the banks

and dodgy mortgage derivatives collapsing.

[thaibkk]

10% more in one day, but who cares

they did lower the prices 10 - 15 baht a few months ago

in my home country, thai price * 3 or more for 1 liter of black gold

[plachon]

Have the people really forgotten the expensive fuel prices of just 6 months ago?

That is why they trying to fillup or hoared a much as possible. I have a small farm and use about 800 liters of diesel a week and to save 1.55 baht per liter is fair bit.

Jeez, when you say "small", how small do you mean? What to you do, irrigate with diesel?

[noahvail]

In case you were worried about those poor oil companies in these hard times.

Exxon Mobil beats own record earnings with $45.2 billion profit for 2008

Chevron's annual profit soars to record

Hmmmm...$45,200,000,000 sounds like so much money. But if my math is correct, then they only showed a profit of $1,433 per SECOND for the entire year. Gee, I wouldn't mind having a minute of profit

I reckon it's a Thai topic because there are still ESSO stations in Thailand. Wow, haven't heard that name since before the Exxon Valdez.

[Ricardo]

So its like an extra tax, a levy. This type of thing will be going on around the world as governments try to grapple with conditions in these economic times...eventually all taxes will have to increase to help at least try & pay for this mess....that is depite what many governments are promising in the immediate future with certain tax cuts to encourage spending.

None of this should be very surprising to any of us....In one hand the Govt give its people a break (Free & half priced water and electricity) and in the other hand they increase fuel levies & taxes.

Have the people really forgotten the expensive fuel prices of just 6 months ago?

Or indeed forgotten manipulation a few years back.

I believe that it's true to say, the Oil Fund is still recovering from their losses during the run-up to the 2005-election, when the incumbent government piled-on massive subsidies, to avoid passing-on rising global oil-prices and upsetting the voters.

Typical behaviour for many a government elsewhere too !

A week after the election, the subsidy was removed, and petrol/diesel-prices soared !

[Brian Allen]

In case you were worried about those poor oil companies in these hard times.

Exxon Mobil beats own record earnings with $45.2 billion profit for 2008

Chevron's annual profit soars to record

Wow - only Chickenfeed again.

About seven per cent on revenues.

After they invested and risked Hundreds of Billions in some of the world's worst Hellholes. And -- while meeting every imaginable kind of insanely fascisticly-imposed regulation -- sourced, transported, refined, , refined and brought their product to market -- and satisfied our every energy need.

All the while battling hostile governments and mobbed-up unions -- AND, in Exxon Mobile's case, also paid more than Two Hundred Billion Dollars in taxes!

Thank God for Oil Companies!

Brian Richard Allen

[Brian Allen]

In case you were worried about those poor oil companies in these hard times.

Exxon Mobil beats own record earnings with $45.2 billion profit for 2008

Chevron's annual profit soars to record

Yes, the quid pro quo for (United States of America's President and Armed-Forces Commander-In-Chief, George Walker) Bush's 8 years,

payable in his last year as a lame duck, to his daddy's oil buddies world wide. And dam_n the consequences.

This was the tipping point for ALL the banks and dodgy mortgage derivatives collapsing.

Good to see that Bush Derangement Syndrome's still taking its toll of what does sufferers of the Socialist Psychosis for "minds."

But the Truth is quite different from the ridiculous canard you advance.

For, just as they later forced them down again, Market Forces pushed up petroleum prices.

While the immediate cause of the banks collapsing and the exposure of the house of cards created by seventy-odd years of "Democratic" Party corruption, criminality and all-around monetary malfeasance was the run on IndyMac, a Pasadena bank, caused by NY senator, Schmuck Shumer.

The underlying causes were set in motion by the various Multi-Trillion Dollar Ponzi schemes ("Social Security" and "Medicare" etceteras) that were created by the richly Soviet-agent larded "administration" of the traitor, Roosevelt, were aggravated by the assorted scams of the Johnson "presidency" and were made absolutely unavoidable by the corrupt practices and innovations -- particularly the "Community Redevelopment Act" -- of the Jimmah Carter gang.

In 1977 Carter signed the Community Redevelopment/Reinvestment Act (or CRA) into law. As a result of what was then described as a "national grassroots pressure for 'affordable' housing," banks were forced to underwrite risky mortgage loans in order to meet the needs of “the entire community.”

In 1995 the Clinton administration strengthened the regulations of the Community Redevelopment Act. The CRA forced banks to lend to "consumers" with "no verification of income or assets; little consideration of the applicant’s ability to make payments and no down payment."

Millions of borrowers, including more than five million criminal aliens obtained these loans fraudulently.

As the mortgage industry grew, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (government-sponsored entities, or GSEs) became a kind of "Jobs Program for out-of-work Democratic Party bums and ne'er-do-wells."

By corruptly cooking the books, co-serial-rapist Cli'ton "administration" friends and staffers managed the GSEs including Franklin Raines, Jim Johnson, Jamie Gorelick and Rahm Emmanual. This small group of "Democratic" Party activists, apparatchiks and consigliere and one of Congress Critter Barney's Frank's boyfriends, paid themselves $200 million in only six years’ time.

The Democratic executives and their one-party media mates kept President Bush and every other concerned Republican at bay by spending "around $150 Million Dollars on 'lobbying" Congressional "Democrats."

Among politicians Chris Dodd, (Democratic Party head of the Senate Banking Committee) B Hussein Obama and John Kerry were the top three recipients of this corrupt money, while the outstretched paws of Missus Cli'ton and Plugs Biden were also well greased, too.

Brian Richard Allen

[JetsetBkk]

...

Brian Richard Allen

http://lookinferlearnin.wordpress.com/2008...as-stupid-does/

[PeaceBlondie]

The petroleum price bubble of last year had less to do with the Community Redevelopment Act than ...anything, even alien probes of Margaret Thatcher.

Out and about today, prices all around 21 baht to the liter. Fine.

[slapout]

I did note the diesel price jumped over 1 baht a liter at some of the stations. Is this not more than the tax increase? No I must be wrong they would not do anything like that.

[JetsetBkk]

My local ran out of 91 Benzene for my bike. "Gasohol same same" said the highly educated 17 year old fuel expert manning the pump...

[PeaceBlondie]

When I bought the new bike last May, I filled up with E10 because I could, and it was much cheaper. Been getting 37 km/l and the prior model got 32 on benzene 91. So like many Thais, I buy ethanol. And it runs just as well.

[Mali1964]

Today Diesel down 50 satang but all benzene/gas products are up again any ideas? Is the Diesel under some sort of Government subsidy scheme.

Or has there been another adjustment in the tax incentive? Which i don't think so because why the he*ll would diesel drop again after a few days.

Any ways its good news for me as everything we have is Diesel except the 3 pee popper motorbike's