Taxes on Oil

The graph above illustrates the inter-country variations in the price of one litre of oil across G7 countries during 2012. It is important to note that these price variations are mainly due to the widely varying levels of taxes (shown in red) imposed by major oil consuming nations. These can range from relatively modest levels - like in the USA and Canada - to very high levels in Europe and Asia/Pacific. For example, in the UK the government in 2012 earned about 60% of the price charged for every litre of pump fuel sold to consumers. On the other hand, oil producing countries (including OPEC) earned only around 34% of the total pump fuel price.