€5-a-litre petrol in the pipeline for motorists, warns expert

MOTORISTS could face the prospect of paying €5 a litre for petrol within the next four years because of global oil shortages.

The claim was made at a University of Limerick’s Science lecture series yesterday after a petroleum reserves expert Matthew Simmons warned that the world had allowed itself to drift into a benign energy war.

Another expert, Professor Austin Darragh, University of Limerick, said some predictions would suggest that oil could cost as much as €5 a litre before 2010.