The other day I got some gas for the car ("petrol for the auto", if you're one of those non-American English speakers). I realized ("realised"?) that it's been awhile since I noticed how much the prices are. See in Dubai there are no big price signs outside of the filling stations. And we buy it in Imperial Gallons, which I'm not terribly familiar with. Also have I mentioned all of the stations are full-service? That rankles me a little big. I'm a big boy, I can pump my own gas, thankyou.

Anyway with news that gas prices in the States are going to reach $4 a gallon this summer - just in time for our return - well, I want to see what we're paying here on the Gulf.

You'll remember I did this last in September of 2006 (see Gas Prices in Dubai).

Last week I wrote down that 1.6 Imperial Gallon cost 10 dirhams.

So if we reverse engineer that:

1 Imperial Gallon = 1.20095042 US Gallons.

Thus 1.6 Imperial Gallons = 1.9215206 US Gallons.

So that's 10 dirhams for 1.9215206 US Gallons of gas.

And 1 dirham = 0.272346 US dollars.

So we paid 2.72346 US dollars for 1.9215206 US Gallons.

Or 1.42 US Dollars for 1 US Gallon of gas.

... exactly the same as a year and a half ago.

It's odd with a rapidly growing inflation around here (grocery stores are raising prices monthly, Starbucks almost weekly) that gasoline appears to be fixed. Very fixed.

It's almost as if we're living in an oil-rich nation ...