Sharepics like this always cause dissatisfaction, but they are often superficial and misleading. We explain why this is so.
In one picture you can see a price display at a gas station. The inscription is in Arabic characters and may well have been taken in Saudi Arabia. The prices were subsequently added to the photo in euros.
The photo carries a message related to gasoline prices in Saudi Arabia. It's about the low prices compared to the prices in Germany or Austria, which are significantly higher. At the same time, a CO2 tax is being brought into play. You read there:
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Current fuel prices in Saudi Arabia. So don't you dare introduce a CO2 tax, you greedy vultures.
The sharepic has now been shared well over 60,000 times.

Let's start with a simple fact check: Is the information correct?
Fact check prices
Petrol prices for Saudi Arabia can be found quite quickly with a simple search using a search engine. on the website de.globalpetrolprices.com , which can be viewed both in the local currency, Rial, but also converted into euros.
The prices on this website as of January 13, 2020 show 2.05 riyals per liter, or €0.49 per liter of 95 RON gasoline. In this respect, one can assume that the information for diesel and petrol with 91 RON is also correct.
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Cheap prices in Saudi Arabia
How do the different prices between Saudi Arabia and Germany or Austria come about? Saudi Arabia is an oil producing country. This should not be forgotten at this point. There are also completely different tax rates on oil locally; petrol is only taxed at 5%, and this has only been the case since January 1st, 2018.
Things look different in both Germany and Austria. The Federal Ministry of Finance in Germany writes the following about the composition of gasoline prices:
The costs for fuel are as follows:
Product cost price: Price at which the goods are imported. It depends on developments on the international oil markets.
Coverage costs : These are borne by the oil companies. The sum covers the companies' costs and their profits. This also includes the share for the statutory stockpiling association of around half a cent. If there is a crisis, he secures an oil supply that should last 90 days.
Energy tax (formerly “mineral oil tax”): The amount of energy tax differs depending on the type of fuel. The state taxes environmentally friendly energy sources (e.g. gas fuels) the least.
- Natural gas (CNG, LNG): around 19 cents/kg
- Liquefied petroleum gas (autogas): around 23 cents/kg (corresponds to around 12 cents/litre)
- Diesel: 47.04 cents/liter
- Gasoline: 65.45 cents/liter
VAT : 19 percent. It is levied on the price of goods and the energy tax.
The ÖAMTC offers a similar explanation for Austria . In the form of a diagram it is explained how the price in Austria is made up (crude oil, production, sales, profit markup, mineral oil tax, VAT).
A CO2 tax would actually increase the amount in the end, but at this point we have to make an important cut, because the strong simplification of the Sharepic creates an unfair comparison.
A closer look: Is Saudi Arabia really cheap?
Up to this point, there's very little to complain about with the Sharepic, and that's what makes it so tempting. But the Sharepic deliberately provides biased information. The supposedly cheap-sounding gasoline price in Saudi Arabia also has a history and is looking for its own basis for comparison.
Saudi Arabia has experienced an immense increase in the price of gasoline. What still looks cheap to us meant inflation of 80% at the beginning of 2018. You can read about this in Die Presse :
Saudi Arabia has increased gasoline prices by more than 80 percent for the new year. The move is intended to help reduce the kingdom's rapidly growing consumption of energy products, the state-run Saudi news agency SPA reported.
This shows that Saudi Arabia is also struggling with certain problems. But at the same time, Sharepic also uses a certain tactic.
Maximum contrast
The Sharepic constructs a maximum contrast at certain points. This means that a country where the price of gasoline is low was deliberately chosen to convey the message. The sharepic could have been made even more drastic if one had taken a look at Venezuela, where the price of gasoline is virtually at rock bottom (€0.001 per liter). However, the low price in Venezuela is not the subject of this article and has been known for some time (compare here and here ).
Nevertheless, it is clear at this point that Saudi Arabia is lagging as a comparison country. Simply because it is an oil-producing country (like Venezuela), which Germany or Austria are primarily not. In order to establish a basis for comparison, one should look at countries with a comparable starting position. It is advisable to take a look at the European countries, for example.
The ADAC offers an overview that is updated regularly. This shows (as of December 2019) that gasoline prices in Europe are between €1.15 (Poland) and €1.77 (Netherlands).

Germany is in the middle range at €1.44, and diesel is even relatively low due to the subsidies. In this illustration, Austria is actually quite cheap in comparison at €1.24 per liter of petrol; the same applies to the price of diesel.
This might also be of interest:
Fact check: Petrol price will be €0.60 and diesel price will be €0.45. More here .
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

