North sea oil and gas

Gasoline/Petrol is refined at a refinery (no kidding you say). Each of the brands buy their product from that refinery in your region. When a distributer orders and buys its product any additive or coloring it requires is then added. there is a separation added between different companies' products. I was told it was water, whether it still is I don't know. Each company did not manufacture its own finished product, It's the same with oil from the oil field.

In Alaska, when I was working there. The product from the field went on junction pipelines then entered the huge Alaska pipeline that ran from the North Slope of the Arctic surface 800 mile to Port Valdez were tankers take it to California. It was my understanding that the oil was collective in the pipeline, as it all came from the same oil pool, and the input to the system from each company was registered and then credited.

The bottom line is there ain't no difference, perhaps the color, between Shell, BP, Arco or the "no name brand" that discounts. However, It comes from the same oil pool/field, the same refinery servicing your region. The only difference is the price you pay.

When I met my late wife, she went out of her way to fill up with a certain brand, she said she got better milage and never had any trouble with her car (she only kept a car for max 5 years).

We bought a new car, the same model as she used, Toyota Carrola. I talked her into buying the cheapest gas available at each fill, no loyalty, log the miles driven, work out miles per gallon, we sold the car the same age as she usually did. We had the same milage per gallon and no trouble with the car.

Cheers,:cool: Rodney

Des, whilst it sounds good to home produce the charging stations there area couple of problems with that.

We do not have any infrastructure to start building any thing here, all gone.
But the biggest problem is the wages of workers.
Wages here are any where up to 35% higher than many of our competitors making goods too expensive.

Then the cost of transport, shipping as we know is not cheap.

There is much talk about starting a 'built at home' policy for Oz, but wages, unions and state regulations make it very hard.

Here in Victoria any project that is given out by the state gov will go over time and over budget, not by a little but by as much as 50% on each

If the goods are manufactured here by Australians, bought here , and the money spent here whats the problem. ? Higher taxes keep the government solvent and the books square. A country as rich as Australia should be self sufficient in most cases . Its a fallacy to have to export to survive. Some countries have to import to survive they also have not built up their infrastructure. They call them 3rd world countries , one Australian PM about 6 times removed called Keaton once called Australia that , and nothing has changed . JS

Hi John
Even the lib Got concedes that wages are to low here, there has not been a wage rise in ten years, it is not Australia's fault if the American's basic wage is only $7 but then maybe the PM thinks it's a cheap labour country. As for building a factory of that size here, have you seen the Submarine one they built in South Aus. Or even the massive Aldi store in Sydney.
Des

Yes Des, I can agree with what you say.

The main problem is the politicians, they only allow actions that will give them votes.
There is talk by the opposition of wages needing to be increased, but that, apart from award wages, is the realm of the employer

When Hawke was in power he raised the award every six months for three years, result, in the 90's we had interest rate sat 18%.
Home grown is good, but most families are cost driven now , look at K Mart prices and see the number of customers they have.
Goods at that low price could never be made here for the same.

It is a pity that we have reached the point where imported goods are cheaper than home made, that should never be but it is.

No longer do we manufacture vehicles, but that came about by the 'Button' plan put forward by button an MP in the Hawke Labor gov of the 1980's.

Where to from here, Who knows but as long as China and others produce the goods we want at a price we can afford I fail to see how home made manufacturing can begin again.