The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) has recently outlined initiatives to the Minister for Energy & Business, Michael Fallon, that will improve fuel supply resilience and encourage investment in petrol forecourts at zero cost to the Treasury. More than 5000 sites (62 per cent of UK total) are still owned by independent businesses but numbers have been declining for many years.
The joint venture agreement Pirelli subsidiary Pirelli & C. Ambiente SpA signed with Clean Diesel Technologies, Inc. (CDTi) in February has been dissolved. Eco Emission Enterprise Srl (E-Cube) was established to market and sell emissions control products for both petrol and diesel applications in Europe and the CIS countries, however the operation hasn’t performed according to expectations.
The Petrol Retailers’ Association (PRA), the trade body representing independent forecourts in the UK, welcomes new legal guidelines from the Crown Prosecution Service calling for fuel thieves to be prosecuted.
The Petrol Retailers’ Association (PRA) has welcomed the announcement that the Chancellor George Osborne MP has pledged in his keynote speech at the Conservative party’s annual conference, to freeze fuel duty until the next election in May 2015, meaning that the planned duty rise of 2 pence per litre in September 2014 is unlikely to go ahead.
"The sudden price hike in both Brent crude oil and UK wholesale fuel prices has thankfully receded as the likelihood of US and UK intervention in Syria subsides. This once again demonstrates the volatility of the UK's road fuels market as traders and speculators cause instability in prices" said Brian Madderson, of the Petrol Retailers' Association, commenting on the latest inflation figures.
At the Frankfurt Motor Show, Jaguar Land Rover announced an investment approaching £1.5 billion to introduce an all-new technically-advanced aluminium vehicle architecture in forthcoming models. To support this strengthening of the Jaguar product portfolio 1,700 new jobs will be created in the UK at the company's advanced manufacturing facility in Solihull.
The weekly e-bulletin from the Independent Automotive Aftermarket Federation quotes a worldwide cost survey commissioned by This is Money from Looking4Parking.com which says that British motorists are being hit with the world's fourth most expensive diesel prices.
The Petrol Retailers' Association (PRA), representing the UK’s independent forecourt retailers, has warned that fuel prices are set to rise as conflict in the Middle East continues. The ongoing geo-political tensions have prompted speculation by traders which has in turn forced the price of Brent Crude oil to a six month high of US$115.65/barrel.
"Fuel prices are expected to increase throughout the UK as external factors have a great impact on the price of crude oil" said Brian Madderson, Petrol Retailers' Association Chairman. The civil unrest in Syria and Egypt, the reduction by one third in Libya's oil exports and the demand for oil slowly returning to some Asian markets have all had an impact on crude oil prices. The cost of Brent pushed through the critical $110/barrel level last week which equates to a 10 per cent increase since the end of June.
The cost to motorists of putting biofuels into petrol will be as much as £224 million more each year than the government estimated, says ActionAid. According to ActionAid-commissioned research by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the government has underestimated the additional costs of biofuels due to inadequate price projection models used by various departments to calculate costs. This extra cost is in addition to the £1-£1.8 billion extra cost to motorists as a result of the UK's biofuels policies that IISD already documented in 2012.
Surprising new data from Government confirms that Supermarkets now have a much higher share of the UK market for retail transport fuels than previously admitted. The latest combined total for petrol and diesel sees an increase to 46.5 per cent in 2012. This compares with the official total of just 39 per cent for 2011 quoted in the Deloitte study and also 39 per cent for 2012 stated in the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) report, such figures were clearly far from being accurate.
The first “Click & Fit” tyre service has launched at Tesco in Bletchley. The service allows customers to order tyres and make a fitting appointment through Tesco’s tyre partner Blackcircles’s website, before dropping off their car at a “Pit Stop” fitting bay at the supermarket. Tesco told local news source the Milton Keynes Citizen that customers could expect discounted tyre prices and Clubcard reward scheme points as extra incentives for using the service. An idea in the works since the companies partnered on the Tesco-Tyres.com website in January 2011, the potential for rolling out this model nationwide is clear, given the supermarket giant’s UK prominence.
The Road Haulage Association is disappointed at the refusal by the Office of Fair Trading to consider an investigation into the issue of UK oil pricing. Such was the strength of feeling over high fuel prices that over 32,000 signatories, including FFUK supporters, members of the public and members of Parliament, added their names to the petition that was handed in to the offices of the OFT on Monday, 15 July.
The Petrol Retailers’ Association (PRA) fully supports Robert Halfon MP's campaign and petition for a full Office of Fair Trading (OFT) enquiry into Oil Pricing Process. The PRA submitted a formal complaint in February 2012 to the OFT regarding competition in the market for retail road fuels. Its call for a full UK Market Study was supported by many other trade associations and the cross-party group of MPs led by Robert Halfon.
"The unexpected crash in the exchange rate for the Pound for the US Dollar, from US$1.58 to 1.48, in just four weeks from mid-June is hitting wholesale fuel costs", said Brian Madderson, Petrol Retailers’ Association (PRA) chairman.
