MSE News: Petrol prices - Shell and BP investigated by EU

Former_MSE_Darryl

"Oil giants Shell and BP are being investigated for possible price-fixing, raising concerns road users may have been paying too much for fuel... ..."

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Petrol prices: Shell and BP investigated by EU



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cepheus

Why am I not surprised?

The European commission said its officers carried out "unannounced inspections" at several oil companies in London, the Netherlands and Norway to investigate claims they may have "colluded in reporting distorted prices to a price reporting agency [PRA] to manipulate the published prices for a number of oil and biofuel products".

The commission said the alleged price collusion, which may have been going on since 2002, could have had a "huge impact" on the price of petrol at the pumps "potentially harming final consumers".

Lord Oakeshott, former Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said the alleged rigging of oil prices was "as serious as rigging Libor" – which led to banks being fined hundreds of millions of pounds.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/may/14/bp-shell-oil-price-rigging

worried_jim

Wait to be bombarded with phonecalls and text messages form companies trying to claim money back from oil companies on your behalf.

LadyDee

"raising concerns road users may have been paying too much for fuel"

Surely not!

jobdone1

HANG ON, In January we are told the uk petrol market is working well by the O.F.T, So now the European union say it is NOT. One thinks the O.F.T needs investigating with regards to their original findings.

scaifea

worried_jim wrote: »

Wait to be bombarded with phonecalls and text messages form companies trying to claim money back from oil companies on your behalf.

Excited about the prospect :-)

scaifea

Seriously, this whole issue needs looking onto; we need a proper 'drains up' on the price of Crude Oil and how that translates to what we pay at the pump.

The_Thrilla

jobdone1 wrote: »

HANG ON, In January we are told the uk petrol market is working well by the O.F.T, So now the European union say it is NOT. One thinks the O.F.T needs investigating with regards to their original findings.

...or more likely the EU is flexing its muscles. One of these companies is sixty-something per cent owned by the Norwegian government. What are these euro-armholes doing meddling in Norwegian affairs? These oil companies go out to difficult and dangerous places to extract this fuel...just to be menaced by a bunch of sicko bureaucrats, who are looking for money to prop up the eurozone. My advice to the oil companies is to take a tip from Putin: turn the taps off.

Arthurian

I suspect this may have been going on for far longer than "since 2002". The question is, why are the EU getting involved now? What has changed behind the scenes?

Rafter

scaifea wrote: »

Seriously, this whole issue needs looking onto; we need a proper 'drains up' on the price of Crude Oil and how that translates to what we pay at the pump.

Totally agree with you - along with how the price of crude is set and whether the investment banks are creaming off profits from both oil producers and consumers.

But why stop with oil? Think the market is working badly for consumers in all sorts of commodity markets - including food.

Otherwise why would banks, hedge funds and others be able to make billions from trading commodities? Each of us must be paying extra as a result.

R.

Fletchy

What needs to be investigated is the high level of tax included in the price of petrol. Currently this is 60 to 70%(I think) , but could be argued to be much more as all the money we use to pay for petrol HAS ALREADY BEEN TAXED BEFORE WE GET IT.

I have to use a car to get to work (no public transport alternative) so this is a tax on my job. The money I earn is taxed and then a big part of what I receive gets paid out again for fuel/fuel tax.