I filled up the tank of my Honda Minivan at Costco over the weekend, where I paid roughly $4.19 per gallon. It cost me somewhere north of $65, and the tank wasn’t even that empty.

The price of a gallon of gas is shocking, but wait — it’s going to get uglier. This week, the cost of a barrel of oil rose to more than $142, with some oil ministers in the Middle East predicting it would rise above $150 and some saying it would be nearly $200 per barrel before it falls back.

All I can say to that is OUCH! If the price of a barrel of oil rises to $150, you can expect to see a gallon of gas cost somewhere around $4.65 to $4.75.

How does that compare to what other folks are paying around the world? Well, it looks like we have a pretty good deal, if you compare where we are to the rest of the industrialized world. In the New York Times this morning, the price of a gallon of gas was listed:

Cheapest: Venezuela $0.25 per gallon, with nominal taxes
Most expensive: Netherlands: $10.05 per gallon, with $5.57 per gallon in taxes.

How much is it to fill up a 26-gallon tank? It costs $189.80 in Spain and $261.30 in the Netherlands.

Double ouch.

June 29, 2008.