“Oil prices are one of the key drivers of inflation because they feed through into everything – transportation costs start to affect food costs and so on.”“We’re not going to see a sudden, huge jump in the price of petrol or diesel at the pump – at least not straight away. But there is now a sense that clearly Opec+ and its members, whatever they say publicly, are looking to support a higher oil price than we might otherwise have had.
Russia used to be the EU’s largest gas supplier, providing 45 per cent of its imports and nearly 40 per cent of its total consumption in 2021. ButWhile the UK does not significantly depend on Russian oil, it has been affected by the increased prices. Higher oil prices would benefit Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as Russia is the second largest crude oil exporter behind Saudi Arabia.
Russia has also announced an extension to its oil production cut of 500,000 bpd until the end of the year.a further 12-month freeze on fuel dutyIt means that the 5p a litre cut in duty on petrol and diesel has been extended and any further increases over the next year have been frozen.
AlannahFrancis1 Is this to push the price of oil up to help their new Russian friends without actually helping them?