AS IF we had not had enough problems this year, there is now another in the form of high oil prices.
Petrol prices are now nearly 100p/litre and will soon pass that level.
Road fuel diesel is already above that level and will probably never fall below that level in future.
It was seven years ago that the fuel convoy headed to London. There were memorable moments as this assorted convoy of lorries and vans and some cars - and a bus which quickly broke down - moved towards the capital.
It all happened during Remembrance weekend and by the time the convoy travelled down the M1, it had escalated into a substantial procession - probably a mile long.
When we reached the Scratchwood Service area we got trapped in by the police, so moved off to central London along the A40 the following morning.
It had a somewhat anti-climatic ending as we were made to park up on the Westway overpass and walk the last mile to Hyde Park Corner.
Together with the earlier protests at the refineries, these protests sounded a warning as to the problems which might arise if fuel prices were allowed to rise.
It is not surprising that such early warnings were completely ignored by the Government; hence we find ourselves in the mess that we are today.
Oil products are the lifeblood of modern agriculture in this country today. There is only one fuel for tractors and other farm machinery which is gas oil: all those wonderful alternatives that people talk about would not be relevant to driving a modern tractor on a cold winter’s afternoon.
Modern agriculture is oil-dependant
I am amazed that one of the recent Chancellor’s stealth taxes was to substantially increase the taxation on red diesel, the fuel used by farmers and many others in the wholesale food chain.
At some stage this will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.
It was not known at the time, but the initial fuel protests marked the peak of UK oil production which has declined ever since.
The significance of today’s high oil prices is that the daily world production of oil is less than demand.
The peak production of oil was forecast for 2008 or thereabouts and this will surely bring about much more volatility in the price of a barrel of crude oil.
It is unlikely that our present government will see the need to prioritise agriculture for its oil consumption if we are not to prevent a rapid inflation of consumer food prices.
Just because the world is rapidly approaching the point where it cannot produce as much oil as it would like to consume does not mean that it is about to run out. But it does mean that, in future, we will all have to be far more careful as to how we manage a reducing supply.
Fortunately I am no longer a big user of red diesel, but I don’t see that the recent increases of fuel tax will do anything to solve the problem of diminishing oil supplies.
It’s just more likely to bring about higher prices for the food which we eat.
