Imagine a country, where vehicle fuel is cheaper than water, and where you can repeatedly fill your tank and drive ‘countless’ kilometres to see your favourite places without worrying too much about your budget.

If you think this country is somewhere in the Arabian Gulf region, which supplies 25 per cent of the world’s oil, you are way off the mark.

In fact, you would be surprised to know that the cost of fuel in the Gulf countries is actually much expensive when compared to other oil producing and some non-oil producing countries.

Now, according to the 2023 Global Gas Prices Report by Zutobi, an online driver education resource, the world’s cheapest petrol is in Venezuela. At $0.07 per gallon (3.785 litres), Venezuela tops the list of the countries with the cheapest fuel. The country also has some of the world’s largest known reserves of crude oil.

Venezuela has retained its number one spot, being one of three countries in the world where fuel is less than a dollar per gallon.

The other three countries with the cheapest petrol is Libya and Iran.

Although Libya’s fuel prices are more than double the cost of Venezuela, it also enjoys an extremely low petrol price of $0.15 per gallon. With Africa’s oil production expected to rise to more than 7 million barrels per day in 2023, the country can expect stable fuel prices.

The countries with with the most expensive petrol

Rounding out the top three countries with the lowest fuel prices is Iran, with prices still well under a dollar a gallon. The country has an average price per gallon of petrol at $0.24, significantly less than the $1.45 per gallon price of the fourth country, Angola.

To appreciate these low prices, one has to look at the countries with the most expensive petrol. The top three in this list are Hong Kong, Norway and Ice Land.

At $13.40 per gallon, more than double the global average, Hong Kong ranks again at the top of the list with the highest petrol price on earth.

In second place, Norway actually dropped its price from $11.36 to only $10.57 per gallon this year. This Scandinavian country collects a 78 per cent tax from oil and gas companies, driving up the prices for all drivers.

Iceland is a newcomer to not only the top three most expensive countries for fuel but to the top 10 list altogether this year. Iceland’s per gallon price reaches $10.31 on average. Like Norway, fuel tax may be one of the key reasons for the high petrol cost.

Meanwhile, in the GCC, the per gallon price of petrol ranges from a little less than two dollars to over three dollars. Kuwait topped the list of cheapest petrol in the region at $1.56, followed by Bahrain ($2.41), Qatar ($2.62), Oman ($2.82), Saudi Arabia ($2.82) and the UAE ($3.31).

GAS PRICE CHANGES ACROSS THE GLOBE

The countries with the cheapest petrol

Iran, Angola, and Turkey have experienced the largest decrease in gas prices in the past six years, while Saudi Arabia, Mongolia, and Trinidad and Tobago have seen the biggest increase.

Iran saw a 6-year price decrease of 85.68 per cent. From $1.68 per gallon of petrol in 2017, the price of a gallon was down to $0.24 in 2023

Although not as drastic as Iran, Angola has also experienced a whooping decrease in fuel costs in the last six years. With a drop of more than 60 per cent, the country’s price went from $4.32 per gallon in 2017 to only $1.45 per gallon at present.

Turkey found its per gallon fuel costs tumbling to $4.93 this year from $6.59 per gallon just six years ago, representing a more than 20 per cent drop.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia faced the highest gas price increase over the last six years with fuel prices nearly doubling to $2.82 per gallon. Despite the fact that Saudi Arabia is in the top 20 countries with the lowest gas prices, over the past 6 years the increase has been more than 150 per cent.

With the Russia-Ukraine conflict coming on the heels of the global pandemic, Mongolia has experienced a nearly 130 per cent increase in fuel prices over the last six years. Today, one gallon of petrol costs $6.76 per gallon, up from only $2.91 per gallon in 2017.

Trinidad and Tobago exactly doubled its fuel prices in the last six years, going from $2.36 per gallon to $4.72 per gallon. Fuel subsidies may account for a significant part of the nearly 115 per cent increase.

TRAVELLING AS FAR FOR $50

The Toyota Corolla was used as a benchmark to determine how far a driver can travel on $50 in fuel throughout various countries in the world. This vehicle averages 44.8 miles per gallon.

Obviously, the countries with the lowest fuel prices will experience the greatest distance. Drivers in Venezuela can travel 30,795 miles (49,559 km)–or theoretically more than once around the entire world–on a mere $50.

For drivers in Hong Kong, the country with the most expensive gas, $50 will only get you 167 miles. Considering the global average of petrol prices, a driver can travel 757 miles on $50 worth of fuel in a Toyota Corolla.

* All fuel costs in this article were sourced from global petrol prices, and are accurate as of January 1, 2023, says Zutobi. Regular unleaded petrol was chosen as the type of fuel to study as it is the most common.

By Abdulaziz Khattak