Why the massive price hike??

[James23]

My local BP has dropped about 6p but my local shell has gone up by 7p and is now more expensive than the bp for the first time ever (the BP is usually 6p more expensive than the shell - i assume this is because it is close to the M1)
Paying 72.9 @ BP atm.

[Dave_G]

My local Total garage has dropped 2p to 72.9p but you also get a 4p off a litre voucher with every fill up so now making it 68.9p

[sorcerer]

Yet another letter from Calor this morning (this morning's price at Preston Calor was 70.9ppl by the way), saying:

As I am sure you will be aware the current instability in North Africa and the Middle East has resulted in a sharp increase in the price of oil products - including LPG.

All the indications are that this situation will be with us for the forseeable future and therefore we unfortunately have to introduce a 3 pence per litre plus VAT surcharge with effect from 14 March 2011.

We have kept the surcharge to the minimum possible and will keep the situation under constant review. This surcharge will appear as a seperate line on your Calor invoice

Now, I will admit that I don't really know or understand what I'm looking at here on the chart that the link below goes to but, as someone on here (Gas Power UK I think) keeps posting links to the same chart I can only assume that it does relate to us in this forum and to the gas we and our suppliers, be that Calor, Sainsburys, Asda, FloGas or whoever, buy - and, to my untrained eye at least, I can't see this "sharp increase" that this morning's letter refers to.

Am I just being thick (I often am) or are Calor now just extracting the urine?

Propane price chart here: http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=CLRP_PS.G11.E

[CougarV6]

Sharp increase my ****!!!
It would seem they have jumped on the 'lets screw the punters for as much as we can get away with' bandwagon same as all the petrol companies, its becoming apparent that the political bull***t is giving them the leaway they need too

[rossko]

Yes of course ... just like the faked moon landings, those pictures on the telly of disruption in various oil producing countries are a hoax by a conspiracy of robber-baron oil fatcats, taking us all as mugs. But if we rant about it here, they are bound to sit up and take notice - c'mon everybody !!

[sorcerer]

Yes of course ... just like the faked moon landings, those pictures on the telly of disruption in various oil producing countries are a hoax by a conspiracy of robber-baron oil fatcats, taking us all as mugs. But if we rant about it here, they are bound to sit up and take notice - c'mon everybody !!

The trouble with us brits though, Rossko, is that we're good at putting the world to rights in the pub but then just sit back and take it on the chin instead of asctually getting off our collective backsides and doing something. Sometimes, I truly wish we could grow a spine and be more like the french.

I wanted someone to confirm (or otherwise), by looking at that chart, whether I'm right in NOT seeing a "sharp increase" before I fire off a letter of complaint to Calor head office. I already know my letter will do nothing to make them change their minds but at least I'll feel better having vented my spleen. I just don't want to make a @!## of myself if I'm wrong. Of course, I fully appreciate and understand that things happening around the world will affect prices here and no amount of belly-aching and whinging will change that - but that chart doesn't seem to bear out what Calor are saying, and if they ARE profiteering, then we DO need to do something about it.

[rossko]

Point Calor at the chart and ask them to explain it, they ought to be better than us at understanding world commodity markets (which I think is what the chart reflects).
It might well not be up to date for this week, but then Calor didn't make their decision the day your letter arrived either.

[Gilbertd]

I think the point to make is that the price of crude WILL rise (if it hasn't already) but the stuff we are buying now was refined from crude bought at the lower price. I've no argument with prices being pushed up when the cost of the raw materials have gone up but this looks like the retail price is being increased prematurely.

[Rubens]

I think the point to make is that the price of crude WILL rise (if it hasn't already) but the stuff we are buying now was refined from crude bought at the lower price. I've no argument with prices being pushed up when the cost of the raw materials have gone up but this looks like the retail price is being increased prematurely.

I agree with this entirely. Its not like oil comming out of the ground today is in the petrol garage tomorrow. And I think I heard Libya accounts for 1 to 2% of global oil production!!
Nothing will change thanks to the dreadful balance of payments left by the last lot in charge. High petrol prices increases the VAT intake, they are already earning a fortune in duty,.add to that, high profits for the oil companies meaning big tax payments, and the government is laughing all the way to the bank. Once again we have to pay for the mess left by the politicians.

[sorcerer]

Well, if anybody's interested I've decided against complaining to Calor head office because I just don't know enough about the commodity markets to be sure. The chart I linked to earlier on doesn't seem to show any "sharp increase" and would imply that Calor are milking the situation but I've now seen a different chart at the same website that does indeed show a sharp increase - so I've decided to keep me gob shut to avoid making a plonker of meself If anyone else knows how to interpret these things, feel free to enlighten me.

New chart here if you're interested http://quotes.ino.com/chart/index.html? ... a=&w=&v=d3

[jabran]

I don't know what the numbers mean but the jump is very linear and has a very steep gradient which if you look at the past history isn't normal/natural rise.

But it looks like it has hit its peak now and will either start rising again, palteu or begin to drop. Could be related to winter fuel demand or something dunno. Lets hope it drops lol

I have noticed though that when petrol prices drop LPG takes a lot longer drop and not by the same amount but when petrol goes up lpg usually goes up by the same amount at the same time.

[Mostly Harmless]

Five weeks ago I could get LPG for 64.9 now it is 72.9ppl. The rise was sharp. The reason was the particular station selling at 64.9ppl wasn't advertising the price at the roadside. It wasn't listed on petrolprices.com and then it got listed.
This coincided with North African problems. I wish I'd known about this place sooner. I went there a couple of times and then found they'd ran out. They said call us. Their number wasn't listed, so they gave it to me. But they ran out several times after, people complained and so head office concluded that the way to resolve the problem was not to install more tanks, but simply to put the price up.
64.9 became 68.9 then 72.9. Not been there since, but I know other places running out at 72.9 and they still can't get the deliveries fast enough.
BRC ran some advertising campaign a month or two ago??
Earlier post said LPG doesn't come back down so quickly.

Not sure as I scour the internet for the best prices before a long trip to make sure I know where the price is good where I think I will run out. Consequently I end up in different stations across the country.
A station can be cheapest in the area for a couple of months and then sudddenly they are the most expensive! What's that about! LPG pricing is weird.

[tom-madbiker]

i was in riga in latvia last week and lpg (which is available at nearly all petrol stations) was 44.9 cents considering the exchange rate that means its about 55 pence a litre