Drivers are paying out more at the pumps for petrol despite a dip in world oil prices, according to the AA.
Yet the need for fair pricing on forecourts has been largely ignored by politicians during the General Election campaign, the motoring group said.
Its figures showed the price of oil was 5% lower per barrel in the first two weeks of April 2015 than in the first two weeks of March 2015.
But average UK petrol prices rose from 111.92p a litre in mid-March to 113.29p a litre in mid-April.
E.ON is to hand £7.75 million to Citizens Advice after the energy company was found to have overcharged customers in the wake of price rises.
The package of help for vulnerable customers is in addition to the £400,000 E.ON has already paid back to potentially affected customers.
Regulator Ofgem said the penalty reflected E.ON’s “repeated failing” on billing rules after the company incorrectly imposed exit fees and overcharged customers following price rises in January 2013 and January 2014.
The regulator said E.ON's errors meant customers who took the chance to switch suppliers after the bill rises were wrongly charged.
Companies are not supposed to apply exit fees if a customer signals their intention to move supplier within the standard 30-day notice period of a price rise. This is the case even if the switch occurs after the price rise.
Recent plummeting oil prices have demonstrated the volatility of the industry and the need for governments to plan budgets on the basis of potentially “enormous forecast errors”, the chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has told MSPs.
The sector was hit after the price of Brent crude oil dropped to below 50 US dollars (£33) a barrel, having been at about 110 US dollars (£74) between 2010 until midway through last year.
Robert Chote told Holyrood’s Finance Committee that such changes demonstrate the high degree of difficulty economists face when trying to forecast receipts.
The OBR, set up to provide independent analysis to the UK Government, has downgraded its projections for oil receipts in 2016-17 from £2.4 billion in December to £600 million, and it is forecasting less than £1 billion each year until 2019/20.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government told its economic team to stick to a conservative budget for this year as crude oil prices began rising, according to two officials in Moscow.
The government rejected new forecasts prepared by the Economy Ministry this week as too optimistic, the officials said, asking not to be identified as the discussion isn’t public.
Earlier this week, the ministry raised its estimate for this year’s average crude price to $60 a barrel from $50, they said. Oil and natural gas contribute about half of Russia’s budget revenue.
London’s top-flight headed lower today as oil prices stabilised but disappointing economic data from China dragged on commodity stocks.
The FTSE 100 Index had been hit by a widespread sell-off in the previous session after a military flare-up in the Middle East pushed the price of a barrel of Brent crude towards $60.
The index was 22.8 points lower at 6872.5 today as the oil price edged down to around $58 but overnight figures from China showed a sharp decline in industrial profits.
It meant the FTSE 100 was on course for a fourth successive day of losses as the buoyant mood which saw it top the 7,000 landmark last week - and achieve further record highs at the start of this one - ebbed away.
Oil rose as the shrinking size of US crude production gains and a falling dollar, which bolsters the appeal of commodities to investors, outweighed rising supply.
US crude production rose 3,000 barrels a day to 9.42 million in the seven days ended March 20, the Energy Information Administration said.
The smallest increase since January left output at the highest level in more than three decades. Prices retreated initially as the report showed that crude supplies increased 8.17 million barrels to 466.7 million last week, the most in records compiled since August 1982.
US oil explorers sidelined 41 drilling rigs last week, the smallest drop in three weeks and down from the average 59-rig weekly decline in February, according to data from Baker Hughes Inc.
The dollar dropped for the sixth time in eight days against the euro, bolstering raw materials denominated in the US currency.
The price of oil could reach $100 a barrel by the end of next year, according to an industry expert.
T.Boone Pickens had previously said he expected a barrel of oil to sell for $80 to $90 within the next year.
“Necessity is the mother of invention.” So the saying goes and so it is true that crises can stimulate creative thought and challenge established norms in a way that seems difficult to achieve when all is calm and ticking over.
In calmer waters thinking reverts to ‘continuous improvement’ and its promise of a more steady and paced level of delivery. With a familiar sigh of relief, comfort levels are restored and with it the pressure to challenge deeply held beliefs and working practices. So how is all this relevant to $60 oil?
The answer is simple: The industry has an opportunity to make a real difference, to capitalise on a situation that is marked by great uncertainty but equally offers boundless possibility. It is a straight choice – the industry has only to give itself permission to frame it in terms of the latter.
Drivers who enjoyed a slump in petrol prices at the turn of the year are now facing a sharp rise in the cost of motoring, according to the AA.
Prices at the pumps have surged by an average of 5.5p over the past six weeks, with average petrol prices now standing at 111.92p a litre.
This is 3.64p a litre more than in mid-February and compares unfavourably, too, with the low of 106.39p seen on February 1.
Lukoil said profit fell 39% last year as crude prices slumped and Russia’s second-largest oil producer reported asset impairments from Kazakhstan to West Africa.
Net income dropped to $4.75 billion from $7.83 billion in 2013, the Moscow-based company said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday. Impairments of $2.34 billion were partly countered by a $1.89 billion hedging gain from oil trading.
The results come after OAO Gazprom Neft posted a 31% decline in profit on Monday as oil prices plunged and a weaker ruble led to foreign-exchange losses, while OAO Novatek last week said earnings dropped 66 percent. Lukoil has cut total spending, while maintaining development deadlines for Caspian and Siberian projects.
The price of petrol at the pumps has risen above the 110p-a-litre mark, according to the AA.
The average petrol price is now 110.12p a litre, having dipped to 106.39p at the start of February 2015, the AA said.
Diesel, which fell to a low of 113.42p a litre at the beginning of February, now averages 116.85p a litre.
One of the smaller energy companies has slashed its gas prices by more than a 10th in response to falling wholesale costs.
Ovo Energy said it was dropping the price of gas by 10.4%, a reduction which is more than double the largest cut announced by any of the Big Six major energy firms in recent weeks.
The cut, which comes into effect on March 1, means that Ovo’s dual fuel standard variable tariff will be reduced by 5.8%, resulting in an average saving for customers of £65 a year.
Energy supplier SSE is to reduce household gas prices by 4.1% on April 30 before extending its energy price freeze until at least July 2016.
The move is the latest cut by one of the UK’s Big Six energy firms, although SSE’s reduction will take effect much later than the company’s rivals, with British Gas due to cut its gas tariffs by 5% from February 27.
In March, SSE pledged to freeze prices until January 2016 after putting up gas and electricity bills by 8.2% in the previous autumn. The UK’s second biggest supplier said today it has extended this guarantee, meaning its gas and electricity prices will not go up before July 2016 at the earliest.
During the holidays, a friend was driving home and said she spotted a fracking well soon after she crossed into Texas.
She wasn’t happy about it. Another friend posted on Facebook a picture of gas prices below $2 a gallon — something that hasn’t happened in more than five years — and commented that the low price made him feel as if “he was stealing something.”
In America, the world’s largest energy-consuming nation, the biggest fractures occur not in deep underground shale formations but in the way we separate our perceptions of energy from reality.
Demand for protection against oil falling below $40 in the next month reached a record as a global supply glut pushed prices to the lowest in more than 5 1/2 years.
Open interest, or the amount of contracts outstanding, for March $40 puts on West Texas Intermediate crude climbed to 22,575.
The price of the options reached 79 cents a barrel today, up from 1 cent in November. Investors should buy less-expensive March or April $35 puts for protection, BNP Paribas SA said.
Inflation has tumbled to its lowest level on record as sliding food and petrol prices plus subdued utility bills helped provide what was described as a “giant tax cut for the economy”.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measure of inflation fell to 0.5% in December, equal to the rate in May 2000 which has not been lower since CPI records began in 1989, official figures showed.
Economists said that the continued plunge in the oil price meant it was likely to fall further and that brief period of negative inflation was “not entirely out of the question”.
The Russian rouble is edging further down amid a continuing slump in oil prices.
The currency was down about 2% in morning trading in Moscow, floating around 62.8 roubles per dollar.
The rouble has been plunging under a combined blow of slumping oil prices and Western sanctions over Ukraine. Last year, it was the world’s worst performing currency along with the Ukrainian hryvnia.
An oil price fall to $40 a barrel will put the brakes on a significant amount of global supply, a report has warned.
Energy research consultancy Wood Mackenzie said falling oil prices risks making producing fields “cash negative” which leas to an immediate break on production.
It estimates that a Brent price of $40 a barrel or below would see producers shutting in production at a level where there is a significant reduction of global supply, with US onshore ultra-low production volume “stripper wells” could be first to be cut.
The US stock market is bouncing back from a tough start to 2015.
Investors sent shares sharply higher for a second straight day, erasing the market’s heavy losses from the first few days of the year.
The gains were driven by a combination of positive economic news from the US and hopes for stimulus from Europe’s central bank.
The price of oil is also showing signs of stabilising after six months of heavy losses, and there is renewed confidence that the Federal Reserve will keep supporting the economy as growth outside the US appears to be flagging.
It is clear that upstream oil & gas will be a tough place for the next 12 months. The compound impacts of high-cost production coupled with low oil prices will squeeze profitability for all stakeholders.
It looks unlikely that oil prices will improve in the short term, as such. That means the industry has to focus on the one area it can influence – cost.
If you consider the macro position, we at Douglas-Westwood are of the view that the fundamentals are still intact and on the whole favourable.
As we ring in the New Year, let's take stock of where we are at with the oil markets. 2014 proved to be a momentous one for the oil markets, having seen prices cut in half in just six months.
The big question is what oil prices will do in 2015. Oil prices are unsustainably low right now – many high-cost oil producers and oil-producing regions are currently operating in the red.
The energy industry insisted deep cuts in global oil prices were already being passed on to customers after Chancellor George Osborne announced a review of the impact on items such as fuel bills, air fares and the forecourt price of petrol.
Ministers said concerned industries were being watched "like hawks" and officials were examining what action might be taken if a seven-year low in the global oil price was not adequately reflected in what the public was charged.
Mr Osborne welcomed a move by four major supermarkets to cut 2p from the cost of a litre of petrol as the slump left a barrel of Brent crude trading at its lowest since May 2009, but said more action was required.
The FTSE 100 Index headed lower for a third session in a row today in a slump driven by sliding oil prices and fears of a Greek exit from the euro.
London’s leading share index had lost 2%, or 130.6 points, in the previous session and was again lower, by about 0.8%, to 6366, as the markets showed little sign of sparking into life after a dismal start so far to 2015.
The oil market is set for “more problems” this year as increasing supplies from countries including Russia and Iraq add to the global glut that drove prices almost 50% lower in 2014, according to Morgan Stanley.
Output may increase from fields in West Africa, Latin America, the US and Canada in addition to more exports from Russia and Iraq, offsetting concerns of reduced production in Libya, analysts including New York-based Adam Longson sai.
Iran may raise overseas shipments by about 500,000 barrels a day if western sanctions against the country are lifted, according to the report.
A price war is brewing between Canada and Latin America over who will satisfy US Gulf Coast refiners’ hunger for heavy oil.
The new Seaway Twin pipeline will almost double the amount of heavy Canadian crude coming to Gulf terminals and plants to about 400,000 barrels a day starting in January, according to Calgary-based based ARC Financial Corp.
The shipments are growing even without the Keystone XL pipeline, which has been delayed for six years because of environmental opposition.
The Canadian supply will square off against crudes from Mexico and Venezuela that have traditionally fed refineries along the Texas and Louisiana coasts.
