FairFuelUK calls for OFT investigation into UK fuel market

FairFuelUK (FFUK) is calling for an investigation into the UK fuel market.

FFUK wants the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to take the issue on, after a report commissioned for G20 Finance Ministers warned oil traders may have been artificially inflating wholesale prices.

It also wants the financial regulators to look at whether traders and speculators have, in the style of the banks and the Libor rate, “fiddled” the benchmark trading price for oil.

In a statement the campaign group says: “We still believe that the government is still largely responsible for the cost of petrol & diesel. After all, it still takes about 80p per litre in combined fuel duty and VAT on every litre. That’s more than 60% of every tank full.

“However, if oil traders or the suppliers are manipulating the market at our expense this needs to be stopped.”

Currently, Robert Halfon’s PetrolPromise.com is also pushing for the OfT to investigate the UK fuel market. The Harlow MP has the support of more than 60 MPs in his bid to get the issue debated in parliament this September.

In a statement PetrolPromise welcomed FFUK’s call. “This is good news. But there is till a long battle ahead – first with the OFT, who are refusing to investigate, and second with the oil companies and traders themselves.”