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Fuel prices ignore the dollar's drop
Page 6
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The dollar falls but diesel prices stay high. Dominic Perry reports.
HARD-PRESSED operators looking at massive fuel bills will be wondering this week why, given the plummeting value of the dollar, they are still paying so much for their diesel.
The renewed suspicion of oil company profiteering comes on the back of recent record profits announced by BP, which made $12.4bn last year, while Shell's profits rose to $11.7bn.
Operators are particularly concerned because, in theory, the fall in the value of the dollar would mean that UK fuel firms can get more crude oil or refined product for their pounds as oil products are traded in dollars.
However, pump and bulk fuel prices have remained resolutely high and in some cases have even crept up, despite the dollar falling by about 16% recently.
Sandy Bruce,hoss of Aberdeenbased Sandy Bruce Trucking, hit out at the fuel retailers: "It's absolute exploitation when it's moved the other way in the past they've been quick to put it up.
"I probably spend about E30,000 per week on fuel and I calculate the price should have fallen by about 10% latelythat could save me around £3,000 per week. which is a significant amount of money."
However, Nick Vandervell. spokesman for the UK Petroleum Industry Association, an umbrella body representing the fuel firms. says the fall in the dollar has happened at the same time as a rise in the world price of oil.
He adds: -Although the dollar has weakened, the cost of the underlying product has gone up. This is particularly the ease with diesel as its price is closely linked to heating oil and North America is using a lot of it at the moment thanks to a cold winter." He says diesel has risen from $280/tonne to $320/tonne recently.
An Esso spokesman adds that pump prices in the UK are set by competition between fuel companies, which he says is "ferocious". A Shell company spokesman says "without the tax element UK fuel is among the cheapest in Europe".