Your Comments

Here we go again!!!! £0.99p a litre and rising...thats £0.15p in the past 8 weeks......If it costs 30p top process a litre of then a mark up of a similar amount would be acceptable...but no the government has to be greedy...and the greed is then passed on to the retailer who also gets greedy.......If we had the same prcedure with food we would all starve to death!!!!

It maybe easier to cut back on the car in the cities, like London for example but when living in the countryside is cheaper and the public transport is poor then there is no other way but to drive.

But I guess the government has got to fund the black hole that has been created by MP's claiming large expenses, as I bet the money from fuel doesn't go on bettering transport, well not in the rural areas anyway.

your all right here we go again. Over 104 in my area. is there anyway we can force this failing "govenment" to reduce the prices of fuel permanently Not give with one hand and take away with the other? Rather than these see-saw policies they impose on everyone else and live the life of Reily themselves.

Austerity? Coming to a street near you in the immediate future?

Yes folks, we've finally reached 'peak everything'.

It's time to end our addiction to oil and here's how we can do it:

1. Stop deluding ourselves. The era of cheap, readily-available oil has ended. Prices may fluctuate, but the underlying trend is up, up, up. We have to get used to using less.

2. Demand that politicians take the issue seriously. Make it an election issue. Don't take 'we've got everything under control' as an answer.

3. Stop building new roads. They're a monumental waste of money, time and effort. They encourage, rather than ease congestion and besides, the growth in car travel that's used to justify them isn't going to happen anyway.

4. Divert that money and effort into measures that address the challenges of oil depletion and climate change.

5. Make a major investment in public transport. It needs to be better, faster, more comfortable, more regular and more predictable. It needs to cater for everyone, not just peak-hour commuters though they need a better service as well.

6. Make a major investment in broadband internet to allow more people to work from home and change tax and business practices that discourage working from home. The more car trips we can avoid, the better.

7. Electrify transport where possible. We should be electrifying commuter rail where it is not already electric and using light rail (trams) in the cities. On the other end of the scale, electric bikes and scooters can make a big difference in our cities. And electric cars show promise, though there's a lot of questions to be answered yet.

8. Don't use cars unless there's no alternative. Take the bus. Take the train. Switch to a scooter. Walk or cycle - both your wallet and your doctor will thank you.

9. Deal with other aspects of our oil dependence. Agriculture, for example, is highly dependent on oil. We're going to need to change the way we grow and distribute food. Let's get to work on that now, not wait until supermarket shelves start to empty.

10. Stockpile or manufacture vital products currently imported from overseas. When oil runs short, will that still be possible? Let's take stock now and work out what we may need to start stockpiling or making (again) in the UK.

11. Think local. Ending our oil addiction isn't just up to central government, though it can play its part. Communities can work together to make themselves more resilient. Join or start a Transition Towns group in your local area.

12. Accept reality. The age of cheap oil is over. It's not coming back. As individuals and as a nation, we have to adapt.

To Summarise:

Stop whining and whinging about fuel costs and start preparing for a new life of austerity.

Find local employment. Reduce your debts. Reduce your fuel consumption. Grow your own vegetables or buy from local suppliers. Exercise regularly. Insulate your home.

Help your family, friends and colleagues to understand the implications of Peak Oil.

Thank goodness there is at least some action going on to address speculation on the oil price.


This appeared in the in the Financial Times (FT) yesterday: June 2 2009 11:59 | Last updated: June 2 2009 23:34:

Commodity markets experienced a "bubble" last year according to Gary Gensler, the new chairman of the the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, who signalled on Tuesday that US regulators would adopt a tougher stance towards futures trading.

"We . . . experienced, in my view, an asset bubble in commodity prices," Mr Gensler told the Senate. "I believe that commodity index funds and other financial investors participated in the commodity asset bubble."


US public opinion and action is significant for all of us since it is the huge US market for oil that largely sets the world price from day to day.

Anger in the Senate and House of Representatives last summer and autumn, over the gouging of the oil price, was only exceeded by that for all the Bankers who effectively destroyed the world's financial systems so causing the the present global recession.

We all need to support more action like this.

@1

Taz Meg,

"then passed on to the retailer who also gets greedy"

maybe you would like to talk to a 'greedy retailer' and ask how much money they are making on unl? There answer will be a loss for the last several weeks.

@6

David,

"There is no reason for the price to be this high as it's all controlled by the crude oil price per Barrel"

Your incorrect, the price of oil actually makes up only a small % of the price, the largest chunk of the price is tax + Vat which is over 70%

Use the resources of this site and educate yourself. This site has all the info available.

Has anyone not noticed that while unleaded has gone up, diesel has stayed the same or even gone down in areas?

I dont care whats what the price is too dear simple as that

Time to buy that Honda CBF125. 130mpg at 60mph sounds pretty good to me. I'm sick of getting ripped off by this government.

I'm sure you all understand that the government need to make a certain amount of money to pay for the running of the country and that is why we pay tax.

Sadly the motorist gets hit hardest when it comes to tax. This is an easy way for the government to make their money because none of us want to stop using our cars and the government know we will pay no matter what the price of fuel is.

People are now changing to more fuel efficient cars so they get more miles for their cash and because of this people are using less fuel, which means the government are not getting as much back in tax. The government then have to put the price up again to compensate this. So you're back to square one paying exactly the same as you were each year when you had your gas guzzler a few years back. The only good thing is that the fuel efficient car is better for the environment.

You cannot win! If everyone sold their cars and used public transport, then the price of a bus/train ticket will shoot up with added tax to compensate the discrepancy.

The fact is that the government need to bring in a certain amount of money to pay for the running of the country and the easiest way to do this, at the moment, is through the motorist. I hate it as much as everyone, but nothing can be done about it.

I have just past the TOTAL garage at the end of my road and unleaded petrol is now 104.9 with diesel 106.9. What the bl...ey hell is going on! We are told that crude oil prices are half the price it was when fuel was this price. How does this government think they can keep telling us fuel prices are going down. Come on mr.Darling pull the other one. Just another angry motorist.

*20
We're actually taxed 3 times:-
1. Fuel duty.
2. V.A.T.
3. Vehicle excise duty (tax disc).

I read somewhere that when the M.P's expenses irregularities are ironed out and abolished they'll award themselves a massive pay rise (50% or more) to
cover the loss, so MORE tax increases x 3 are definitely on the cards for us motorists.

Ref: 20 & 21

Let's get these lying b@st@rds out of Westminster and elect a decent Government.

I realize the Conservatives have "Blood on their own Hands" in the expenses row but I'd rather have David Cameron running the Government than this Scottish Idiot.

#23,
Chris 100% agree, in this case it's not better the devil you know, more
a new broom sweeps clean and boy doesn't it need deep cleaning.

Dazza @ 24
I'm certain that Chris meant no offense to Scottish people in general he was
I think singling out the 2 in a million idiotic Sotts that are Brown and 2 pence in September, April etc Darling.

Market commentators are suggesting today (16th June 09) that, at around $70 per barrel, the speculators have pushed the oil price to a level that will not be sustained by the market.

The price hike is based on assumptions that the western, and world, economies are about to recover somewhat. The consensus is however, that while we may have got a few tentative green shoots, the speculators have overdone it. (Note they include merchant banks like Goldman Sachs and others plus the trading units of High Streeters like Barclays etc.)


So the oil price could fall over the next couple of months.

If as consumers we hold our consumption back now, we may get the UK retailers to cut their pump prices quicker than in the past.

It is possible to drop your annual mileage from say 20,000 to about 3,000, depending on circumstances. Think of the impact of a fair proportion of drivers doing that!

I was shocked today to find petrol back to nearly £1 a litre and to hear that the government still want to tax us more for our fuel. I propose we have a day of mass protesting again. It seems it is the only way for this government to listen to us and take our views and concerns seriously. The overtaxing is killing businesses and making peoples lives miserable because many people cant make ends meet as it is. I propose we have a mass protest on 1st July 2009 show the government we are not happy esp about petrol tax. Anyone agree?

So is Goldman Sachs right?

Short answer: no one can say - predicting with certainty where markets will go is beyond most mortals, even Wall Street's finest. But there are arguments on both sides.

The factors pointing to a rise in the price of oil include China's rapid expansion and insatiable appetite for commodities, the fact that new discoveries are struggling to keep pace with demand and political uncertainty in oil-rich areas such as Russia.

On the other hand, economists would always expect demand for commodities to fall in a downturn, bringing prices down in turn. A dramatic rise in the oil price risks suffocating any recovery and so preventing a surge in demand for basic commodities, including crude.

“A severe jump in the oil price such as Goldmans are predicting would break economies,” says Mr Bosdet of the AA. “A rise of 10 per cent would be pushing it too far. Petrol at 110p could be the breaking point - that's where the economy cracked before. A rise of about 5p to 105p would be our worst case estimate.”

He adds: “Speculators are up to their old tricks, trying to talk up the oil price. But the ability to survive another bubble is lessened now, as the world has changed - credit is harder to come by, there is less easy money sloshing around.”

Mr Bosdet says a more likely price at which petrol could stabilise is about 90-95p.

GEt your facts right its 107.09 here for petrol 106.09 for diesil

re 30 i agree on some points but this is totally unreall and aa get your facts right

THE REDACTER'S WORK HAS BEEN IN VAIN,
DAY LEE TELEGRAFF STRIKES AGAIN.

1, Obligatory TAXES. There WILL BE NO UNDER funding.
2, WE'LL SCREW MOTORISTS FOR EVERY PENNY.
3, Open policy. RAISE FUEL TAXES BI-ANNUALLY.
4, Taxation is BEST WAY TO FUND GRAVY TRAIN.
5, Alistair Darling FOLLOWS in the WAY of Gordon Brown.
6, Prime Minister CALAMITY Brown.sniffs FALSE TEARS
7 & 7a,There are several EXCUSES WE CAN USE OFTEN, GLOBAL WARMING, Also CONFUSION etc.
8 (parts) a, b, c. See sub-section 9, paragraph 4.21.3

After years of being told that diesel was more expensive due to a lack of capacity I finally bit the bullet and switched to a petrol car. Then what happens? There's now parity between the two prices. HOW CAN THIS BE?

Seriously flippin pi$$ed off at the cartels and the Government. Even more pi$$ed off at being able to do absolutely nothing about it :(

Well something don't work out, how can you have petrol at £1.17p per litre when oil was at $147 per barrell?


Now Oil's now priced at $0.69 per barrell, the actual exchange rate which they initialy last year blamed for the prices not coming down by as much as they should have have now gone back up so petrol should be even cheaper.

The facts are plain and simple the greedy Oil companies & supermarkets are all in it together, they are artificialy inflating the cost of a litre of petrol.

The actual cost of a litre of petrol should be about £0.67p per litre if you work things out & put on 2p a litre for the duty rise the greedy government put on.

They sneakerly put the price up bit by bit & now were all noticing it again, nothing has been said on the news about it remarkably but it won't be long.

How ever it will fall on deaf ears as we all know the vast majority of the british public can't be bothered to do owt about it. And im afraid to say it but untill we the public can be bothered just get used to paying extra & have a good old winge about it.

G.Jones 38. I think this is what you're looking for.

I bet Gordon Brown et al are shaking with fear and worry about this.
(They're more than likely shaking with laughter) because the result will be the same as last years laughingly so called protest, and what did that achieve? (The answer will fit several times over on one side of a postage stamp with your full address and postcode).
Just look at events of the past month 6 weeks and you'll find that the "poor" motorists don't even make the top 100 of things to help out.

MORE than 2,000 bikers plan to bring chaos to Manchester's busiest stretch of motorway with a new protest at the rising cost of fuel.

The bikers hope to echo a similar demo last year, which saw about 1,500 motorcycles stage a go-slow on the M62 to hit out at spiralling costs of filling up at petrol stations. Last year's demonstration saw dozens of haulage, taxi firms and motorists join the bikers, causing huge delays to traffic.

Vehicles set off from Birch services, near Middleton, and headed into Manchester at a snail's pace, causing gridlock on city centre streets and the M62.

This year the bikers plan to stage the demo on Sunday, July 5, to minimise disruption to commuters. Protesters will meet at Birch services at 10am.

why do we pay it
we should use only bp stations on one day and for example total on another
if we did this for a few weeks it would start hurting these big corporations hard in there pockets and soon bring the prices down
unless we make a stand soon we will lose these prices forever

Steve Wilson while i agree boycotting would make the companys think, one day wont make any differance start with a week at least, the biggest culprit is the tax man who wont care as he will still get the same revenue as people will use other companys, the only way to make them take notice is a complete boycott of all petrol stations, i contacted my local mp asked why the tax was so high,as a disabled driver it hits us as hard as anybody else, was told if you can afford to have a car then you can afford the extra taxes, suprise suprise he was one of them caught fiddling

How about this for a zany idea..

Everyone phones their boss on an agreed date (1 day before the end of the month say, when a lot of people are paid) using the following line

"Hi boss, can't make it in today, my car's out of petrol, and I haven't got any more money this month to buy petrol, since it's been so expensive, it's cleared me out" see you tomorrow, when my pay's come though"

If 20 million people don't turn up for work for 12 days every year, how much would that cost the Goverment?

A recent study by the AA found a car that a car that achieves 58.15 miles per gallon travelling at a steady 30mph will deliver only 30.85mpg when going over humps. Then add to this the cost of suspension repairs.

Time for action!!!

Blow your horn every time you go over a speed bump! It will eventually annoy the neighbours so much the council might actually decide that a flat road is preferable to the constant blaring. At least if enough people do it it will have an effect!

The Barrel of Oil Myth.

Much has been made of Oil reaching $147.00/Bbl in June 2008. There is a misconception this was the price paid by Oil Companies to buy oil and refine into Road Fuel, nothing could be further from the truth.

The $147.00 mark was set by the "Futures Market" which trades Oil, but does not refine it.

The "Spot Market" reached $135.00/Bbl, but they do not refine Oil either.

The "Contract Price" is the one that counts when it comes to refining.

The avg "Contract Price" worldwide during June 2008 was £124.00/Bbl, $23.00/Bbl less than the Futures Price.
Speculators in the "Futures Market" pushed the price up by 18.55% above Contract Price.

Take the high price of Petrol @ 119.90p/litre.

Government Share:
Minus Duty at that time = 50.35p/litre.
Minus VAT at that time = 17.86p/litre.
Total = 68.21p/litre or 56.89%

Company Share:
50/50 Split with Station = 05.00p/litre.
Delivery + Additives = 02.00p/litre.
Refining Costs = 05.50p/litre.
Total = 12.50p/litre or 10.43%

Cost of Crude: = 39.19p/litre or 32.69%

39.19p/litre @ 1.99 Exchange Rate = $124.00/bbl.

The Government Share, is far greater than the Company Share.

End of Story.

A very big thank you to Learjet @ 49 & 50 for taking the time to show us how the figures stack up immensely in favour of the government. (Expenses/allowances to claim, M.P's impending huge pay rises to fund).
The sad fact is however we are powerless to do anything about it unless of course someone has a legal way to bring about change.

All I'm gonna add is that thia all sucks,BIG TIME!!!! We are being ripped off in this this country for so many many things and the petrol prices are just one of them, as someone made a comment earlier something HAS to give!!! :-(

People need to start smuggling fair-price petrol into this country.
So much for "fairtrade" what about "fair-price".

And yes pretty much everyone will buy it.

The British Government has been under pressure for some time, from the EU to raise its VAT rate to between 18- 20% to bring it in line with EU rates.

To do this, so close to an election would be political suicide. However after an election, who knows.

As far as putting a fuel tariff on foreign haulage contractors. EU Regulations would prevent this from happening to other member countries.

The UK economy is in dire straits, and all the spin will not change that. The Government has two choices, raise taxes and charges or cut their own spending. They may even have to do both, to raise the revenue just to service such a huge debt.

The thing that really scares them, if the general public stop spending money, its game over.

@58

Hauliers yes,
Farmers....you do realise that farmers get fuel free of duty dont you? ie. Red Diesel.

i remember at the time they were campaiging for 16ppl off when they were paying 18ppl or similiar i think i saw figures quoted.

Could never understand why the farmers were in the protest in the first place.

Tesco: 102.9

Total: 104.9

Total: 104.9

Jet: 104.9

Gulf: 117.0

re 62 Reverse psychology? or conscientious objector?

Egg us "fools" on to do something that you can't drag yourself from your pit to do.
I can see you now"supporting"? us from the comfort of your cosy armchair surrounded by last nights takeaways and mound of empty larger cans.

With Oil prices falling back sharply over the last week and coming back to approx $62 a barrel as of today, why are we not seeing this decrease passed on at the pump?

The garages have been quick to increase fuel over the past weeks as the price climbed back over $70 a barrel but no one as yet seems to be as quick with things going the other way! Yet again we are hit in the pocket with ridiculously high fuel prices and no one seems to question it.

@65

Mostly unleaded gone up Phil, there has not been that much movement in diesel pricing.

The price has gone down the last 3 days, you ask why garages have not gone down yet, well probably the same reason garages dont go up when it goes up 3 days in a row.

All filling stations act as a kind of 'buffer', they follow the price trend, if stations put there prices up and down everyday then one day there would be no customers and other days there would be too many customers, This would not only be impossible to run from a fuel point of view, then further up the chain, oil companies would have 400 tankers doing nothing one day and need 800 the next, the system could not run like that without increasing the distribution cost to afford having tankers lying around doing nothing one day and having enough to fill up stations because they sold 3 days worth of fuel in one day.

If you look at the data you will see the average uk price is roughly were you local station should be, use that as a tool to gauge wether or not your getting a good price.

If your local garage is at 1.00-103 then dont expect them to move, if they at 105-108 then yes they should be moving down soon.

There are people on here who operate stations, they do a fair job i think in trying to explain how it works.

Asda drops fuel prices to below £1
2 hours ago

Supermarket chain Asda has cut its fuel prices to 99.9p per litre, saying there is "little justification" to charge more than £1 at the pumps.

The price cut was made on petrol and diesel at the company's 176 forecourts.

Commercial director David Miles said: "There is no justification for any major retailer selling fuel above £1 per litre - that is why we are delighted to be able to reduce both petrol and diesel to 99.9p per litre for all our customers in line with falling costs."

And he added: "Asda is offering value to all drivers nationwide and we can guarantee all our customers that they'll get a fair price for their fuel no matter what they fill up with at the pump."

The company said that while diesel prices have previously been higher than petrol, current costs mean that this should no longer be the case.

According to website petrolprices.com, on Wednesday the average charge per litre for unleaded was 103.8p, ranging between 99.9p and 115.9p, while the average for diesel was 105.3p, ranging between 99.9p and 117.0p.

The price of crude oil has been on the rise in recent months, but it is still less than half the 140 dollars a barrel level it reached at its height last year

The price of petrol has dropped by $10 in the last few weeks, but nothing has changed at the gas station.
We are all being taken for a ride!

My father gave me some advice when he taught me to drive in 1960 and believe me it works. Forget all the complicated fuel saving tips you only need one.
Imagine that there is a raw egg between your right foot and the accelerator and brake pedals and see how many more miles you get to the gallon!!

Using a tank a week is getting more and more expensive. Do I blame the tax, not really it s done on a percentage basis, I blame the greedy Oil companies, it is still les that 10 pence a Gallon in Saudi Arabia. They sell it and then the greedy Oil companies rake up their prices and everything else goes up with it. There is not a shortage of oil, what there is, is a shortage of Oil companies being sensible with their profits, they are going up and up and until all governments get on their backs they will not reduce them. And yes I do know the Oil Industry and the trials and tribulations of getting out of the ground as well as the Gas Prices, when the Oil Prices go up the Gas Price goes up, but when the Oil price goes down I do not see the Gas Price go down too fast, They like the Politicians are ripping us off for their own pockets.