Oil firms blamed for distorted fuel price
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a by Melanie Hammond
Bulk fuel suppliers have fought back against claims that they have been ripping off their customers, blaming oil companies for keeping pump prices artificially low.
Bafflers all over the country have been hit by an upsurge in bulk prices in the aftermath of the fuel crisis.
But according to Ian Watson, director of Fuel Control Services, the major oil companies have continued to pass on crude oil increases to the commercial market while keeping forecourt prices down. Prices have become so out of kilter that Road Haulage Association national chairman John Bridge has called on Transport Minister Lord Macdonald to launch an investigation into the oil companies' pricing strategies.
Bridge raised the issue on behalf of the Fuel Forum, which met with Lords Whitty and Macdonald last Friday.
"At my firm we have locked up the pump and are sending our trucks to the forecourts," Bridge reports. The market is clearly distorted and it is totally unacceptable."
Watson says: "Oil companies knew that during the fuel crisis an increase at the pump would be met with a fierce backlash from the public and the media. I have written to my customers but it is very difficult to justify selling a fuel card which is costing my customers more than some pump prices."
A Shell spokeswoman admits: "The price at the forecourt has been kept low due to the current situation and fuel shortages. But hauliers do have the choice of buying their fuel at the forecourts."