Fuel profits or RIP off Britain

May 21, 2008
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Here we go again, yet another year where the oil giants report multi Billion pound profits, while get stung at the fuel pumps!!

With petrol hovering around 92p a litre we are all struggleing to run our cars with or without a caravan. I already buy my fuel at the supermarket because Shell, Esso, BP etc are more expensive, as every penny counts when you do 25K miles a year.

I've suggested before that we should do what the french do everytime they get another tax/price rise. But over here in good old blighty we don't seem to want to be team players.

Last time the fuel protest's were on, I was the only one out of 300 employee's at my workplace to display a fuel protest sticker in the car. But at breaktimes all the talk was about fuel prices. As the saying goes "talk is cheap" actions mean having bottle and courage.

We all stop at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month to remember those who took courageous action to try to ensure we live in a democratic and peacefull land.

So what do you think would happen if we all stopped our cars, trucks, Buses and motor bikes for 30 mins at a specific time on a specific day just to show we are all fedup with being RIPPED off!!

Would we be on the news, mentioned in the commons, herd across the world may be ?

What do you want to say or better still do?

Rant over now, I'll jump off my soap box before someone shout's anachist !! (Cos I'm not. Just fed up of price rises without wage rises)

Steve.
 
Dec 16, 2003
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Awe cumon Steve surely you have noticed all the benefits Tony,Gordy and Prezza have brought you and your family and friends.

How can you moan about paying for some of the most expensive fuel in the world when you live such a luxurious life style in the eutopia that New Labour is till improving, Walking and driving on streets of gold whilst enjoying the best schools, hospitals and public services money could ever by whilst other western countries beg to have what we have,

How can you moan ;-)
 
Dec 23, 2005
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I don't know if this has already been mentioned on the forum before but www.petrolprices.com is worth a look. Just stick in a postcode and it will find the cheapest fuel near to your location. The AA used to so something similar called Petrolbusters but as it wasn't making them any money, closed the site down.

It's interesting how petrol prices vary so much around the country. The cheapest I can get unleaded petrol for is 85.9p and this is at a Shell garage in Stoke.

What are petrol prices like where you live?
 
Mar 14, 2005
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I have never been in support of nationalised industry but there is a just case for the profits these companies are making to be taxed heavier or a price watch control be put on their products. The way the prices are going in order to line fat cat wages is rediculous. It is not only oil but the other services such as gas, electricity, water and telephones are going the same way.
 
Nov 6, 2005
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Most folks are either working hard, in the hope of a decent pension, or already dependent on a pension.

Pension companies are major investors in oil companies so these excess profits will eventually get into OUR pensions via company dividends.

Without these huge profits we'd all have less pension income, either now or later.

Supply and demand is the controlling factor in petrol prices, oil prices and virtually all other prices. These prices are high because people are prepared to pay.

"steve in Leo" quotes petrol at 92p/litre but in this part of the Midlands it's only 88. The difference isn't accounted for by wages that much lower, given that petrol stations only make pence per litre anyway. I guess that there's more money available in other parts of the UK, just like house prices vary.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Lets face it; it's the tax on fuel that makes the price so high. So what are we getting in return? Are we getting better schools/hospital/ambulance/dental/fire/road/police/doctors/pension services?

Well, I don't see any of that happening, so could someone please explain where all this money is going to?
 
Dec 30, 2009
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Lets face it; it's the tax on fuel that makes the price so high. So what are we getting in return? Are we getting better schools/hospital/ambulance/dental/fire/road/police/doctors/pension services?

Well, I don't see any of that happening, so could someone please explain where all this money is going to?
How else do you think the MPs can vote for a 20% increase in pay each year.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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It does seem a hell of a lot of money but I did not see it reported what part of the total company turnover it represents. I would also be interested to know how few pennies it would take of the price of petrol to wipe it out?, as I don't think it would be many it tends to put it in better prospective.

As far as health spending on hospitals is concerned and speaking as one who needed it in a hurry just before Christmas, I cannot fault the fantastic care I received, absolutely fantastic
 
Nov 1, 2005
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John, your point about profit relating to turnover is spot on, but there is no getting away from the fact that petrol is taxed in the region of 400% which can be described no other way than outrageous. It's apparently the case that
 
May 21, 2008
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Awe cumon Steve surely you have noticed all the benefits Tony,Gordy and Prezza have brought you and your family and friends.

How can you moan about paying for some of the most expensive fuel in the world when you live such a luxurious life style in the eutopia that New Labour is till improving, Walking and driving on streets of gold whilst enjoying the best schools, hospitals and public services money could ever by whilst other western countries beg to have what we have,

How can you moan ;-)
With the greatest of ease mate. Especially when you work triple shift which gives you a 23% average bonus for the anti social hours and you even get taxed on that.
 
May 21, 2008
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Well guys I see paragraph 4 is certainly being used well. Who wants to stand up and shout with action like pargraph 6?

Just look at your wage packets and see how big your pay rise was (3% of 25k for the average shopfloor worker) and then calculate just how much your petrol and utility bills have risen over the last year.

Bingo!! now you've got the point these are rising at 2-3-4 times your hard earned.

How the hell we can have an average rate of inflation of 2.5% is beyond me. A reality check on the main household expenditure doesn't tell anybody that we're all better off!!
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Steve, Year on year you have to work longer before you get to the 'tax free' point. I believe you now work 5 months of the year just to pay taxes and this has increased by over 1 month since labour came to power.

This is how Gordon Brown operates, stealth taxes that the majority of the public don't notice.

I think it is rich anyone blaming the Arabs or oil companies for the price of fuel when the vast majority of the costs is made up of government taxes. Without the tax on fuel western countries would be bankrupt.
 
May 25, 2005
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Can anyone suggest how we can find out who supplies our supermarkets with petrol at their pumps? I for one am boycotting Shell UK but, unknown to me, they might be supplying my local supermarkets.

Morrisons

Tesco

Sainsburys

etc.
 
Aug 28, 2005
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anne why should you boycot Shell ,if any body should be boycotted it should be the goverment ,i have just been on the website that gives you fuel prices around the british isles ,and on there site they give you a breakdown of who gets what ,on the site it states that fuel costing 0.91 per litre 0.60.6 is tax ,they say that 81.5%of fuel is tax ,now just think the goverment dont have to build a garage or pay rent or rates or pay staff out of there 81.5% ,all you have to do is read the paper to see how they throw your money away ,just look at the dome in London ,and the wobbly bridge they built ,isnt it funny funny that no one ever gets fired for these **** ups like they do in the private sector ,and whats happened to equality all goverment workers retire early with an inflation proof pension while the rest of us pay for it ,and if any body saw that tv program last week about 75 milion pound they paid for accomadation center for asylum seekers that never got built ,just think of the hospital wards they could have kept open
 
Dec 23, 2005
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Ann, not sure of where you can find out who supplies the supermarkets with fuel.

Tesco may use Esso fuel as they have Esso signs at the Tesco Express filling stations and I believe that my local Morrisons store use to have a Texaco sign.

Incidentally, in a recent Auto Express magazine, somebody wrote in asking if supermarket fuel is a cheaper blend than fuel from a normal forecourt. They replied that it is exactly the same fuel, just bought in bulk which makes it cheaper.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Martin,

It depends on who owns the refinery as to who supplies the petrol eg.

Pembroke is Texaco

Cardiff is Texaco

Southampton is Esso

Plymouth is Texaco

Scotland is BP

Coryton is BP

Gill
 
Dec 16, 2003
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Shell profits come from oil extracted not fuel at the pumps.

I knew a Shell director who filled his car at the local Total station rather than along the road at a Shell station.

A surprised neighbour questioned him and he explained how he was doing Shell a favour as Total were losing more than Shell selling the fuel!

If Bungles Blair and Brown keep hitting the oil companies profits you may see fuel going up at the pumps to recoup some of the money in a different set of accounts.
 
Aug 28, 2005
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Most people are under a misapprehension that the Fuel co's make their money from selling in GB unfortunately it is just an illusion.. How it works is that the exploration company buy the rights to a piece of land or sea bed known as a "field" they then start to extract oil - and based on the amount of oil and ease of extraction they get so many barrels a day to the surface.

Dependent on what is known as the "spot market" (the price of a barrel of oil) means the company either makes a fat profit or thin profit. One of the interesting things is that the demand for oil from China, India etc has caught the oil production company's off-guard - when fuel was $20-25 a barrel the oil companies didn't/ couldn't invest in new capacity and that has been the start of the problem when new capacity in terms of either production or refining comes on stream then the price should come down, however it only takes a few acts of sabotage on a oil line to force the price up.

One of the other things about the UK fuel situation is that the Branded garages make very little money. - High fixed costs and a declining market, where as the supermarkets increasingly look to fuel as a key profit centre of a supermarkets portfolio.

Monkeys husband
 

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