Fuel prices are continuing to rise and we have to ask ourselves – “Why has the price of oil more than doubled and now looks like trebling?”
One thing is for certain – the cost of extracting oil from the ground hasn’t doubled or trebled so somewhere along the way the market is being manipulated.
The Opec nations claim they are not ramping up the prices and yet daily we read stories of the amazing standard of living of the heads of those oil rich states. Personal 747 jets with solid gold bathroom fittings – diamond encrusted Mercedes cars – palaces and houses of indecent proportions – these are certainly not the trappings of those who work on narrow margins.
We know that countries such as the United States released oil from their strategic reserves when prices started to rise – hoping to stem the flow of price increases.
We also know that when they realised that prices were going to continue to rise, they then started to rebuild and expand their reserves therefore exacerbating the problem.
Fuel reserves are essential for the United States Security Plan and as high oil prices tend to undermine international security – they simply need to bolster reserves.
India and China are rapidly increasing their usage of oil as the standard of living improves in these countries. China in particular seems to be oblivious to the situation in the rest of the world and tends to work on the “I’m all right Jack” principle.
Clearly there are speculators somewhere in the middle who are seizing their main chance.
The international oil companies are announcing record profits. As usual they are quick to raise prices on the news of dearer crude and totally ignore the fact that the opposite should happen when crude prices fall.
And all the time sitting on the sidelines is the government. Their tax take is set as a percentage of the pump prices so – the higher the petrol price the greater their take. Michael Cullen must be rubbing his hands with glee. All this extra money pouring into the Government Coffers and he and all his colleagues have cars and petrol supplied by you and I the humble taxpayers.
Now there’s a thought – cars and petrol for City Councillors.
Yeah right.
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