What Countries Have The Cheapest Gas?

What countries have the cheapest gas available? The specific countries are not that hard to find because this is really a trick question.

The price for gas across the world ranges greatly. Many parts of Europe have insanely high gas prices. This is intentional. A decision was made to avoid urban sprawl and create dense cities with excellent public transportation. As a result, most countries in Europe tax gasoline massively to the point that gas prices in the United States would have to reach $7 to $10 a gallon to match them.

To find the countries that have the cheapest gas, we have to go to the other end of the scale. Are there countries that promote gas usage? Not as such. There are, however, countries that subsidies gas use. By subsidies, I mean that they artificially lower the price of gasoline in the country until it is obscenely low. The countries that do this are usually oil producers. Let’s take a look.

Venezuela

Venezuela is a big oil producer. The subsidies in the country are hilarious. The cost for a galloon of gas is roughly 19 cents. A typical American car holds roughly 12 gallons of fuel. In Venezuela, it would cost $2.28 to fill it up. That makes Venezuela the country with the cheapest gas in the world.

Nigeria

Nigeria is just about the most corrupt country in the world. I’m sure you’ve received a few thousand emails from some gent in Nigeria whose third cousin with the Minster of Something and left him $14 billion in a bank account that could be yours. Yeah, right. Regardless, the country also happens to be bathed in crude oil. It literally just comes out of the ground on its own. Shell is the big player in Nigeria, and gasoline sells for between 20 and 30 cents a gallon.

Iran and Saudi Arabia

The prices have been going up in the Middle East oil producing countries. This may seem odd, but it really shouldn’t. The problem for these countries is they don’t refine their own oil into gasoline. They do, however, subsidize it. Still the cost per gallon is between 33 and 85 cents depending on circumstances.

Subsidy Problems

These numbers are obviously very low, but problems can be created. Oil is a finite resource, yet people plan their life around the accepted price. Adjusting is difficult. When these countries run into problems that make it difficult to subsidize the gas for their citizens, things can turn ugly quickly. Indonesia is a classic example. It was an OPEC country until recently when oil reserves started running low. Indonesia actually ended up importing more oil than it was exporting. The loss of revenues made it impossible to maintain the subsidies. Civil life was thrown into chaos and riots were wide spread. An already poor country was suddenly still poor, but facing higher fuel prices.

What countries have the cheapest gas? The ones that have big oil reserves and can subsidies gas prices for their people using revenues from the oil sales.

<< Back to Gas Articles