Gas approaches $10 a gallon in Oslo

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 10 (UPI) -- U.S. drivers feeling blue about $4-per-gallon gasoline might ponder the pain being felt in Norway where the price approaching $10, industry watchers say.

Gas pump prices have hit $9.85 per gallon in Oslo -- the highest in the world, says Associates for International Research Inc., a Massachusetts company that tracks the cost of living in dozens of countries. Imagine paying $130 just to fill the tank of a Mini Cooper.

The African nation of Eritrea and Paris aren't far behind at $9.46 and $9.43 a gallon, respectively. Copenhagen, Denmark, at $9.24, Rome at $9.03, London at $8.96, Berlin at $8.68 and Hong Kong at $8.05 are among the cities paying double what Americans pay at the pump.

"It's small consolation, I know," said Michael Shore, a senior manager at the consulting firm told the Los Angeles Times. But "the prices that (Americans) are paying now, Europeans have been paying for a long time."

In fact, about three-quarters of the 150 or so countries surveyed by Associates for International Research pay more for a gallon of gas than do Americans.

Want to go where the gas is cheap? Try Kuwait City, Kuwait, at 92 cents, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at 47 cents, Tehran, Iran, at 41 cents and Caracas, Venezuela, at 12 cents.