An Australian tourist has gone viral after comparing the cost of filling up your tank in Iran versus back home.
Globe trotter Pav Jayawardena frequently posts videos of his wild travel adventures to Instagram, recently journeying across large expanses of the Middle East — including Afghanistan and Syria.
During his latest journey of discovery to Iran, the 22-year old student from Melbourne documented his stop at a local service station in a city in south-central Iran, where he revealed the shocking cost at the bowser.
“Petrol in Iran is cheaper than water,” the Victorian local began, showing how a litre of fuel cost just 1500 Toman, which is roughly 1.5 Australian cents.
The video captioned “Aussies cover your eyes and ears” uploaded to his social media on Thursday, has since been watched by more than two million people.
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He continued: “It’s crazy. One Australian dollar gets you 121 litres of petrol. That is incredible.
“Petrol is basically free. Taxis don’t run on meter but based on how much time the ride takes.”
Meanwhile back home the price of filling up could not be more different.
The average price of petrol in Western Australia was $2.48 per litre on Friday, slightly above the national average of $2.45 according to FuelRadar.
South Australia had the lowest state average with $2.42, while the Northern Territory had the highest, with an eyewatering $2.70 per litre.
Other Western nations are also feeling the pinch with people in the UK shelling out upwards of $2.80 to $3.20 per litre.
Even in the US, where petrol has always been historically cheap, motorists are paying roughly $1.40 to $1.80 per litre, depending on the state – an increase of 40 per cent from this time last year.
His video has stirred outrage online, with hundreds commenting on how much they are having to fork out to fill up, with one person writing: “My Wallet is crying.”
“Just spent a crisp 100 Australian on 35 litres,” one person lamented, with another adding: “And yet we are getting robbed everywhere else.”
A third commented: “Australia could never.”
Unfortunately, the outlook for Australians does not look promising, with the price of fuel set to continue to go up amid warnings that the global shortage of fuel could worsen in the coming months.
Experts have previously warned that Australia would be “top of the list” of nations that would be worst hit by major shortages due to having the lowest oil stocks in the OECD.