Monday 5th Nov 2007
Danny Murray, CEO of Topaz Energy, today indicated that consumers can expect an increase in the price of petrol, diesel and home heating oil over the coming days and weeks.
Explaining the decision, he cited last week’s record high crude oil price per barrel as one of the key factors forcing the price increase. He said: “While price increases for the consumer are of course regrettable, in the face of the 40 per cent crude oil increase since mid-August, today’s decision became unavoidable.
“The high price of crude oil itself is impacted by a number of factors that have been extensively reported - most notably market sensitivity to developments in Middle Eastern diplomacy, tighter supplies coupled with increasing demand from emerging economies, a weak dollar and an inflow of money into commodities.”
He further noted that customers have been shielded from the effects of rising oil costs to date by the weakening US dollar. He said: “To put it in context, we estimate that motorists would be paying between 6c and 7.5c more at the pump for a litre of unleaded or diesel if the dollar had remained unchanged over the last number of months.”
A further factor contributing to the price increase in an Irish context was the Government fuel levy increase (effective since Nov 1st) to one cent on every litre. The total Government tax and levies make up over fifty per cent of fuel prices.
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