Petrol price rise is inevitable, oil firms warn

Huge petrol price rises that could see the cost of a litre increase by 9p cannot be controlled, oil companies said yesterday.

Huge petrol price rises that could see the cost of a litre increase by 9p cannot be controlled, oil companies said yesterday.

Oil prices are already at a near two-year high because of a general strike in Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil producer, and worries over military action in Iraq.

City experts predict that the falling output from Venezuela could lead to a 4p-a-litre price rise at the pump, with a further 5p-a-litre rise if war against Iraq disrupts supplies from neighbouring Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

But the big oil companies say there is nothing they can do about it. A spokesman for Shell said: "Generally speaking, supply and demand dictates market sentiment – if there's a restriction on supply you would expect there to be a rise in the crude price."

Howard Forti, manager of external affairs at Esso, which raised its petrol prices by 2p-a-litre on Friday, added: "What's going on out there in the big wide world, those are factors that affect the prices of crude oil. And when the price of crude oil is affected then people who are retailing petroleum-based products obviously get affected."

The general strike in Venezuela, in opposition to the country's left-wing president Hugo Chavez, has cut output by nearly three million barrels a day.

US oil stocks have been significantly hit and analysts fear that if the strike, now in its 26th day, continues into the new year, oil supplies could reach dangerously low levels.