Monday 18th July 2005

Petrol passes the £1 barrier

Prices went up last week as some pay £1.10/litre

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Prices soar as oil hits $60/barrel

Petrol prices have hit £1+ per litre -- at least they have if you live on Scotland's Western Isles. In Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis, petrol was £1.09 for unleaded, £1.10 for diesel, while in Benbecula, it was £1.028 for unleaded petrol and £1.038 for diesel. On the mainland, prices went up to around 90p per litre on Friday.

While some on the islands see it as an unfair tax on the island, the oil companies' usual mantra is to cite the extra cost of shipping the stuff to a remote location. That contrasts with the petrol station on the Orkney island of Rousay, where Chris and Marion Clark are subsidising petrol prices with what they make in their petrol station shop because they cannot bring themselves to charge the 250 islanders the true cost. They should have been charging over £1 for unleaded and diesel at their pumps for the past year but yesterday the price board showed just 98p a litre for petrol and 99p for diesel.

According to a report ion the Glasgow Herald, Clark said: "Basically we dropped our margin from 12.5 per cent to 10 per cent on fuel. We try to be fair and give the heavy users such as the contractors on the island a further discount, otherwise the cost just gets added to the cost of the job."

[jvaughan]

Its £1 a litre for Diesel in Marlborough, Wilts ...
98p unleaded

[bunglist]

I think its about time the country had another fuel blockade is it not.

Anyone got any ideas how we set the ball rolling for this?

[blunder13]

I said I would give up smoking when they went over £5 a pack, now I just smoke a cheeper brand. Not much I can do about the petrol though!

>> Edited by blunder13 on Monday 18th July 19:57

[4WD]

I think I'll leave my sti's power alone for a while. That fuel unfriendly upgrade looks like a silly idea right now.

[cdp]

I've thought of a way of winning out of this:

Just run a enconomical road car during the week and pick up a V8/V12 bargin for the weekends.

[flamingm0]

Since when was it ever a barrier!?!

[Balmoral Green]

Just out of interest, how much petrol is 'cracked' or 'fractionated' (I think those are the terms) from a barrel of oil?

BTW, although HMG taxes the hell out of petrol, they dont control the price of oil. If the price of petrol rises when the taxation rate has remained unchanged, its not HMG's fault, although percentage wise they gain even more from it...maybe there should be a revenue cap on it.

[RSTurboPaul]

I'm sure I remember reading somewhere the observation that the fact that the oil companies are blamed for the high price of petrol as being possibly the greatest achievement of this governments many Spin Doctors.

They tax it then charge VAT on top of that tax.

Bastards.

97.9 for super today. I put £2 in and will get to sainsbury's as soon as I can...

>> Edited by RSTurboPaul on Monday 18th July 19:47

[andy4200]

Really bleedin annoying that the price at the pump goes up as soon as the price of the barrel goes up but takes a lot longer to go back down, if at all, when the barrel price goes down.

[davejw]

Paid over £1 for Esso... in Cranleigh, Surrey 3 weeks ago - but I only put in enough to get me home so what was the point? They could have had a full tank...

Dave.

[JonRB]

I paid 97.9p for Super at a Texaco today and thought I had been ripped off until I got home and read this thread.

[RSTurboPaul]

Sainsburys was "only" 87.9 last night for Super so guess where I go usually!

I'm aware of all the quality arguments about supermarket petrol, and I don't mind paying a couple of pence a litre more for decent stuff, but not 10p a litre more...

[shadowfax]

92p for Optimax here in Merseyside over the weekend. BP Ultish*te has been 98p or so for ages

[vetteheadracer]

Most pumps only have 2 digits to display the prices, so no idea what will happen once they get past £1.

[nawarne]

Paid £1.06 a litre for 98 RON at the garage bottom of Marlborough high street Sunday 10th July.

Think the 95 was 96p per litre!!

Unfortunately, it was 10pm on a Sunday, and couldn't guarantee seeing another open one before we got home.

[Don]

I usually buy Optimax. But I can get Sainsbury's super at a far lower price so...

£1 a litre is truly ridiculous.

There *will* be fuel protests if this keeps up...

[nyssa7]

You miss the point. HMG tax petrol with a fixed amount and then add 17.5% VAT to the whole price of the petrol, so you even pay tax on the petrol tax

Gordon has so graciously not added 1 or 2p per litre as from September to make out he is responding to the situation. But that was going to be yet another increase in taxation, so he's not giving anything away. And as petrol has gone up 10p/litre in recent months he's now raking in 1.75p/litre extra VAT for starters - and has been doing so for months in advance of September

Bizarre that petrol prices ahve risen so high that when we see it for 86.9p (my cheapest local station) we now think "hey, that's cheap" when its still 5p/litre dearer than when we had blockades

Amazing how we become conditioned to paying through the nose - and more than anywhere else in Europe despite being the only European country with our own oil fields

Faced with potential £90/week fuel bills for my new job, amd more as petrol increases to rise, I did as one forum member has already suggested. I now drive a Smart the 56 miles each way - going to prove cheaper to buy and run the Smart than use my usual day car (which would average 28-30mpg)

[dcb]

nyssa7 said:

Amazing how we become conditioned to paying through the nose - and more than anywhere else in Europe despite being the only European country with our own oil fields

For a reference point, I paid EUR 1.31 to EUR 1.35 across Europe last week for 98 Octane fuel.

I make that 93 p to 96 p a litre.

Not so different prices in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Austria I think.

Can't comment on the other countries.

I know Norway has their own oil fields.