Gordon Brown: Oil Prices Won’t Settle Down

The Prime Minister said the cost of oil was likely to remain high "in the long term".
His warning came as Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, indicated that – following a campaign by The Telegraph – a 2p increase in fuel duty was unlikely to be introduced in October.

But after a meeting with oil industry chiefs in Scotland, the Prime Minister offered little further comfort to motorists, who are facing mounting costs under plans to introduce new higher rates of car tax.

Mr Brown, who described recent price rises as the "third great oil shock in decades", said that while he wanted to help the "hardest-hit" families, the problem of global demand outstripping supply was not easily fixed.

As Mr Brown met representatives of BP, Shell and Total, the Government announced moves to increase North Sea oil production.
However, the energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, admitted that this would have no impact on fuel prices.

The Prime Minister – who yesterday disclosed his intention to expand Britain's nuclear power stations to tackle potential energy shortages – is under pressure to halt a planned rise in fuel duty which has already been postponed since March.

On Tuesday, the average price of a litre of unleaded petrol stood at 115.14p compared to 96.53p per litre this time last year, according to the AA.

In a Scottish parliamentary debate last night, the Nationalist MSP Alasdair Allan claimed that the Western Isles was the most expensive place to buy petrol in the world. He said diesel in North Uist costs £1.45 per litre.