The Top 5 Nations With Cheapest Gas Prices

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By Charles Poladian - Gas prices fluctuate and, depending on where you are in the world, can be quite the bargain. The Washington Post has broken down gas prices from countries around the world and it’s not surprising that some of the cheapest places to get gas are those with massive oil reserves.

The Washington Post reports Venezuela pays just $0.05 per gallon. The reason for the cheap gas there is state-run gas stations being supported by the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., PDVSA, whose assets include Citgo and petroleum stakes in Sweden and Germany. The $0.05 rate reflects the Central Bank of Venezuela’s exchange rate whereas the tourism exchange rate sets the price at $0.10.

The cheapest gas prices in the world can be found in countries that are members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC: the aforementioned Venezuela as well as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. Iran’s average price per gallon of gas is $0.47, Saudi Arabia's is $0.78 per gallon, Kuwait's is $0.88 and Qatar's is $0.93. No other country breaks the sub-$1.00 per gallon mark, but the Washington Post reports that Egypt and Oman are tied for sixth with an average of $1.50 per gallon of gas. However, based on GlobalPetrolPrices.com, the sixth-cheapest country for gas, with an average price of about $1.07 per gallon, is the tiny island country of Bahrain.

While the price of gas in the United States is nowhere near as low as they are in those countries, the U.S.'s average price of gas, currently at $3.31, does fall well below the global average. Subsequently, the U.S. is the 15th cheapest nation for gas, according to the Washington Post’s map. The global average is $5.52 per gallon of gas. Norway is the distant outlier for countries with the most expensive price per gallon of gas: $10.76 per gallon, $1.60 more than the next-most-expensive country, the Netherlands, where gas is $9.16 per gallon.