I got this email today and it sounds like a plan to me, I've sent it to everyone in my email list and you should do the same, if you agree with it. The more people that will action on this the better excellent

See what you think and pass it on if you agree with it

We are hitting 123.9p a litre in some areas now, soon we will be faced with paying £2.00 a ltr. Philip Hollsworth offered this good idea:

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the 'don't buy petrol on a certain day campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to buy petrol. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT,whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work.

Please read it and join in!

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre is CHEAP, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the market place not sellers. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not purchasing their Petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. Here's the idea:

For the rest of this year DON'T purchase ANY petrol from the two biggest oil companies (which now are one), ESSO and BP.


If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact we need to reach literally millions of Esso and BP petrol buyers. It's really simple to do!!

Now, don't wimp out at this point... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to a lot of people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) .. and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it... ..

THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all You have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all.(and not buy at ESSO/BP) How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8days!!! Acting together we can make a difference . If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.

PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE 69p a LITRE RANGE

It's easy to make this happen. Just forward this email, and buy your petrol at Shell, Asda,Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons Jet etc. i.e. boycott BP and Esso

Sorry mate, it wont work.

We cant control the price of oil, and neither can the oil companies surprisingly.

A startling statistic for you - Royal Dutch Shell only produces 3% of the oil it sells through its wholesale and retail channels.

This email has been doing the rounds for years and never got anywhere.

The problem right now is lack of supply countered with increased demand, the big oil nations are simply not producing enough oil, they are actually possibly doing this on purpose now, as it is making them mega rich.

Regardless of which, you will NEVER see 69p per litre petrol again in the UK forecourts. The tax alone would account for the majority of this.

ye have to go with you on that i got it email to me today and it did sound like a plan.but we need to do somethink to get fuel prices down in the uk 80% of the price of fuel in the UK is tax. Over 50% of the cost is fuel duty, and then they have the gall to charge VAT, not on the untaxed fuel price but on the price as a whole.

We are effectively paying a tax on a tax.

Our government and the bank of England are worried about inflation, but inflation is driven up by costs at the shops. Goods cost more because it costs more to transport it, reduce fuel prices reduce inflation.

i dont buy from ESSO/BP anyway
buy your petrol at Shell, Asda,Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons Jet etc.& boycott BP and Esso. your doin your bit

The VAT thing is to do with a service, which is provided by the petrol station, so it is totally legit.

Albeit its still too expensive, i've been getting the train into work for the last 5 weeks and have suspended my fast tag.

The VAT issue on the tax percentage though, isnt. It is against EU law, but im sure the government are charging it to the refinery point of Sale as a loophole around it.

However, if someone could stand up and say something, im pretty sure the government would be hammered for it, hopefully by the EU.

Its pretty simple, you are not allowed to charge VAT on tax. You can only charge it on a product or service, hence it is value added. Tax is not a product or service and does not add any value to the end product.

No but it becomes a part of the price, i'm sure they have a legal way of charging the VAT on the duty.

But all the better if they don't.

I wouldnt exactly say legal; the word loophole springs to mind. But either way, we all know they are charging VAT on duty, and under EU VAT law, this is illegal.

Given the high price of fuel right now, you would think they would have the decency to maybe stop ripping the consumer off for a while, at least till oil prices lower...

it is unlikely that oil prices will lower to be honest, as we are gettin shorter n shorter on it in this world.....

saudi are a main supplier, and even there oil counts are dropping....doesnt give hope for the rest of the countries supplying it....

petrol prices are ridiculous, but they wont get any lower, unless the government get their arses into gear and get something done about the rates they tax us......

Its not the likes of BP and Esso that are putting the prices up. They just refine the oil, not drill it.

The problem is with who drills the oil, and they are putting the price per barrel up before BP and Esso even get their hands on it.

The UK actually has the cheapest petrol in Europe before tax - but the most expensive after tax. (I belive we are one of the only European countires that actually drill for our own oil...)

IMO something need to be done about the amount of tax on the fuel, but rest assured - this is just a short term solution.

Oil is a commodity that will run out, and as it gets harder and harder to get the price will go up - irrespective of the tax on it.

I think if we had similar tax levels to the rest of europe however, the public may be able to understand the problems with the prices rising more easily.

i do understand the prices rising more easily and quickly but at the same doesnt make it any easier, when i first got my licence in october 06, it cost me £30 to fill up....now it costs me £40....just in the space of 2 years......its a lot money in little time really.....

in saudi it costs approx £15 to fill up a 3 litre Kia Sorento.....

i wish we had that, it would cost me a fiver...lol

yeh....

People seem to think the problem lies with a lack of oil; im afraid it doesnt, it lie with various different factors, basically all leading to the big players not producing enough.

There is much more capacity for oil to be produced right now, we are still within the "peak term" for oil. However a decrease in production has hit in at a time when there has been an increase in demand, and refineries are running scared and bidding higher and higher amounts to secure more than they need (you do realise that refiners dont just buy what they need, but they have massive massive reserves of the black gold).

Until the industry stops being so scared, oil prices will rise. However, there is massive scope for more production, and as tensions within the middle east calm down, the price of oil will start to lower.

Atm it is believed that the big players are actually now holding out on supplying enough to ensure that prices remain high, for the simple reason, the countries in the middle east know they have 25 years left before it all dries up and they have nothing; ever wondered why so many of the oil producing nations are trying to entice more and more business and people into their countries? Because they need to build for the long term future, the future that comes after oil has run out.

There are so many factors involved in the high price of oil, it become difficult to make sense of it. For instance, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the subsequent problems in Lebanon and ever-increasing division between Syria/Iran (who supported Lebanon) and Israel is causing problems. Then you have mass political tensions in Africa, who surprising as it may seem, actually produce a high amount of the west's oil. The blowing up of major oil lines doesnt help. The ongoing Iraqui conflict is slowing production down in that region. Global warming/climate change is having an effect, as people are using more throughout winter, as they get colder and longer. The hammered US economy is causing problems, as expected, remember Texas Crude oil accounts for the majority of US oil, and this is why the dollar is affecting the OPEC price so much. Brent crude is running out, there is no question it is past peak production now, and this means the UK is having to import more than ever before. Which inevitably means less for everyone else. And to top it off, demand from the likes of China and India is increasing world demand for the product.

Basically, a hundred factors have all come together at once, to cause this situation, and analysts and refiners are in a mass-panic, buying more than they need to ensure they meet demand.

Once the panic slows, and they begin to realise there actually is enough to go round, political situations globally improve, the likes of Saudi get back to max production instead of holding out for the higher price in the knowledge they can get it on the basis of fear right now, and the wester economy improves, the price of oil will start to lower.

High oil prices will be a regular occurrence in the future, but they will go lower again at some point. People were fearing high oil prices for eternity during the 1970's oil crisis, and yet only a few years later, we were enjoying the cheapest prices ever known.

Fact - oil is only just finishing peak-production.
Fact - There is the supply to meet the demand atm.
Fact - The economy in the west will improve.
Fact - The Opec nations can increase supply.
Fact - The price of oil will go lower.
Fact - oil will run out however, and it will never get to the likes of $11 - $65 a barrel again.

can u make ur post a little bit smaller, then i may have the patience to read it

only jokin....some good points made....

After hitting a record $136 per barrel for a short time two weeks ago, todays market prices illustrates how the price of oil is already starting to drop:

- Brent Crude Oil $/barrel 126.18 0.00 0.0
- West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil $/barrel 125.89 0.00 0.0

How soon it will drop to a more acceptable level remains to be seen; it could well increase again before it drops to the sub-$100 a barrel level. It could be 6 months, it could be 18 months before the price goes sub-$100 again; only time will tell, but it will happen sooner or later.

Well, fingers crossed your right Matt

Personally, Im not convinced it will drop quite that low, but for once I hope your right

Ditto lol; I watch a lot of stuff like Working Lunch as you can probably tell.

Its the big story on there for like the past 2 months haha!

In the meantime though, the government could do a hell of a lot to "ease the pressure on families with regards fuel prices" as they keep saying they want too...

Anyone who votes Brown in for the next GE after his handling of our economy and this latest crisis, deserves to be shot imho.

Lol, I was trying to watch a good story on the C4 News last week, with a more and more irritable GF trying to get me to switch over....

...I guess she just doesnt appreciate how much the oil price effects pretty much everything....

Haha my gf hates me watching anything to do with oil prices, and im banned from talking about it... girls eh, they just dont get it!

C4 News has been running some excellent stories on all aspects of fuel/oil lately, including Biofuels, which I have been very interested in.

some good points made
The british public is the best at complaining about something and they make lots of noises about something like this but unfortunately when it comes down to it they won't carry anything through. This petition on the No.10 site petition no,10 has a good chance of doing something with 156404 signiatures so far, not nearly enough yet though. Something like that needs publicity and someone determined to take it to the top.

I have just read an article in the sun which claims that the cheapest petrol in the country at the moment is in Shirley service station, Manchester and Sainsburys in birkenhead at 110.9p

just came across this may be of interest to do with this subject.
is it as bad as they make out??? life after the oil crash

that is very stereotypical matt.....

Well at least things are going in the right direction now the market fear is easing and refineries are no longer panic buying which is leading to a replenishment of reserves.

I told you a lot of the high price was to do with panic buying. It will increase again sooner or later however, unfortunatly

BBC News Report

Prices have climbed to $133 per barrel again as a result of the terrorism state (Israel).



Only saviour is, soon, China, India, Japan and Korea will stop government subsidies which is keeping petrol prices low in these countries (India raised their price of petrol just last week for the first time in ages), so this will play a MASSIVE part in the overall reduction of consumption, which will result in lower priced oil thanks to decreased demand.

The only problem is just how soon they will do so. Could be a few months in India, cos I am pretty sure there is national elections there soon?

"The VAT issue on the tax percentage though, isnt. It is against EU law, but im sure the government are charging it to the refinery point of Sale as a loophole around it."

That's what I understand too - the retailer has to pay the duty for the whole tanker when the fuel is delivered to them (a problem for the independents!) and then it is included as part of the cost of the raw material when it is sold to the customer so can be taxed for VAT again.

found this just put ye post code in or town find the lowest uk petrol