Thirty nine cents or R0.39 is what you'll pay for a litre of petrol in oil-rich Venezuela, home of the world's cheapest petrol. It's been said that petrol is cheaper than water in Venezuela. Imagine that. The main reason for this is because the government subsidises the fuel and it is sold at a fraction of the price it costs to produce.

But before you start complaining about our high petrol prices or start immigration plans for Venezuela, the price of petrol in South Africa is far from being the highest in the world. No, that honour goes to Turkey, where you'll have to fork out R19.44 for a litre of petrol.

We take a look at the five countries with the cheapest petrol and the five countries with the most expensive petrol.

Cheapest petrol in the world

1. Venezuela - 39 cents/litre
2. Libya - R1.19/litre
3. Saudi Arabia - R1.27/litre
4. Algeria - R1.67/litre
5. Qatar - R1.75/litre

World's most expensive petrol

5. Denmark - R15.46/litre
4. Belgium - R15.54/litre
3. Netherlands - R16.65
2. Norway - R16.65/litre
1. Turkey - R19.44/litre

But what is the cost of petrol in the countries that consume the most oil? At more than 20.6 million barrels per day, the United States far outweighs the rest of the world's oil-consuming countries.

Largest oil consuming countries (in barrels per day)

1. United States (20.6 million) - R6.20/litre
2. China (7.5 million) - R7.53/litre
3. Japan (5.0 million) - R10.91/litre
4. Russia (2.8 million) - R6.36/litre
5. India (2.7 million) - R7.97/litre

South Africans consume just more than 500 000 barrels per day and at R8.72/litre we are much better off than most countries.

Prices are calculated at the current rand/dollar exchange rate of R7.97.