One price, two methods
The pump price is the sum of crude, refining, distribution and marketing, and taxes. In a published breakdown, an official source supplies the split. In a derived breakdown, we estimate crude and retain refining and distribution as a single residual. We never invent a split between the two.
Crude in local currency per litre
Crude cost = benchmark price in USD per barrel ÷ 158.987 litres per barrel × local currency per USD × refinery yield factor. The default yield factor is 1.0. This is an allocation assumption, not a claim that one litre of crude becomes exactly one litre of gasoline.
WTI is the default for US and Canadian observations. Brent is used for Europe, the UK, Australia and Pacific US regions. Australia’s regional refined-product benchmark differs from Brent; our crude estimate is explicitly a proxy. A benchmark is not a direct measure of each refinery’s purchase costs.
The downstream residual
Refining and distribution = observed pretax price minus estimated crude cost. This residual includes processing, transport, retail costs, margins, product-market differences and timing effects. It is not net profit. Negative values are flagged and retained, with signed values in a table.
Taxes and tax-inclusive prices
When gross and net prices are published together, taxes are their difference. VAT included in a gross price is price × rate / (1 + rate). UK VAT at 20% is price/6; Australian GST at 10% is price/11. If no verified VAT rate is available, the full observed tax wedge remains combined.
EU non-VAT residuals may include excise and other indirect taxes. We compare them to the published tax schedule and flag differences above EUR 0.02/L. US statutory calculations require both the rate and the correct taxable base. Prepaid sales-tax amounts cannot be substituted for current percentage calculations.
Dates, currencies and grades
Inputs use the latest observation available on or before the price date, with a maximum benchmark age of 10 days. No future exchange rate is used. Source values remain in their published units in MySQL; exports convert to local currency per litre and USD per litre. One US gallon is 3.785411784 litres. Non-euro EU prices use the corresponding dated currency rate.
US regular gasoline and European Euro-super 95 are the standard products reported by their sources, but they are not identical specifications. A comparison is not adjusted for household income, fuel economy or purchasing power.
Monthly data stays monthly
EIA and California publish monthly component estimates. We display these with their own date and price, separate from the latest weekly retail observation. A monthly split is never silently applied to a newer weekly total.
Checks and incomplete coverage
Component sums must match the price within 0.5%. Negative components and weekly moves over 15% are flagged. Missing tax records, stale benchmarks, source failures and unverified effective dates remain visible. Empty regional coverage does not acquire a neighbouring region’s values.
Licensing and news
Kalibrate ingestion is disabled until republication terms are confirmed. Canada’s fallback uses NRCan retail observations and a derived breakdown. News stores source headlines, links and feed excerpts capped at 300 characters. Optional summaries are off by default. We do not scrape paywalled article bodies.