Oil prices won't affect petrol yet, say UK retailers

Rocketing oil prices will not have an immediate effect on the price UK motorists pay for petrol, retailers said today.

The cost of a barrel of crude oil reached another record high on the stock market closing at $46.60 after concerns about supplies from Iraq.

Experts said this will not effect today’s petrol prices but if the hike continues for a month it will eventually filter through to the forecourt.

Ray Holloway, director of the UK Petrol Retailers Association, said there is a separation between crude oil prices in the US and what happens in the UK.

“The crude oil price doesn’t have any implication for forecourt prices today or even next week,” he said.

“People make a lot of money out of speculation and a ‘what if’ scenario but in terms of petrol prices it doesn’t have an immediate effect. There’s enough petrol to get us through the summer demand,” he added.

He said prices will eventually rise if oil prices continue to soar for a month.

A spokesman for the AA said competition is keeping prices steady.

“It’s a volatile market and there’s a competition between petrol retailers keeping prices down,” he said. "Motorists can shop around. Supermarkets have low petrol prices to get shoppers to come in and local petrol stores have to compete with this.”

He said the average price was currently 81.61p a litre which compares to 83.5p in 2000.

He added motorists can keep costs down by driving at lower speeds and using the air conditioning less.

A spokeswoman for Shell UK said the company had not made any plans in the week to increase prices.

“Our intention is to keep prices as low as possible for as long as possible but the soaring price of crude oil will eventually trickle down.”

Meanwhile, Iran’s OPEC governor reportedly said global oil markets are oversupplied at present and there is no reason for OPEC to raise production to bring prices down from 21-year highs.

“Now there are more than 2.8 million barrels per day of crude more than demand,” Hossein Kazempour Ardebili was quoted as saying on the Oil Ministry website.

“There is no reason for OPEC members to increase production,” he added.