According to DW-World the price of Petrol in Germany in 2007 was made up as follows: 0.4 €cent per litre for getting crude oil out of the ground. 0.1 €cent per litre for getting across the Suez channel with the supertanker 0.4 €cent per litre for transport by supertanker 42 €cent per litre results from market speculation 2 €cent per litre for refinery into petrol 9 €cent per litre are added by the petrol stations (profit margin) We are now at 54 €cent per litre The rest is taxes, namely VAT, Mineral Oil Tax as well as an Eco tax, together it amounts to 88 €cent per litre. Final price for the Consumer: 142 €cent per litre. That is about 6.6 dollars per gallon for you Americans. (assuming I did not screw up the conversion)