The RMI Petrol Retailers’ Association has indicated its full support for today’s (July 16) Daily Telegraph article which explored whether oil prices are open to manipulation by bankers, oil companies and traders.

Brian Madderson, PRA chairman said: “PRA has been concerned for some time about the lack of transparency in wholesale road fuel pricing which could be affected by any abuse of the systems used by price reporting companies. A recent study published by the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) on behalf of the G20 Finance Ministers confirms these concerns.

“We submitted a detailed report to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) earlier this year, alleging anti-competitive pricing across the UK based on evidence gathered from their members.

“Our report highlighted potential flaws in price referencing systems as one of the fuel price mechanisms needing proper investigation. Businesses, motorists and independent retailers all need much greater price transparency and we called on the Government to support the request for the OFT study.
 
“Disappointingly, our request for a new ’market study’ has been provisionally turned down by the OFT. We strongly believe that such a market study is urgently needed to review and resolve many issues that impact on retail road fuel prices.
 
“PRA is currently lobbying Government and appropriate officials at the Department for Transport (DfT) and Department for Energy & Climate Change (DECC) as this decision needs to be reversed such that a “market study” will go ahead to the ultimate benefit of the motorist and the UK economy.”

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