Heating oil price jump

[MM]

BoilerJuice price Friday: 31.15 Today: 32.79

Is this because of the fire? (Petrol at the pumps has become cheaper recently, currently available for 88.9p.)

MM

[The Wanderer]

Hmm, petrol was 84.9 when I filled up yesterday....

[MM]

I haven't seen it that cheap anywhere around here (Fens).

MM

[The Wanderer]

Not *that* far away - Yarmuff......

[sPoNiX]

There are rumours of a 30% ish rise in petrol prices shortly.

(Also I assume insurance will go up!)

sponix

[Andy McKenzie]

I have also heard that the sky is definitely going to fall down.

Chicken Little

[Tony Bryer]

[SPoNiX] :

Given that the tax on petrol is something like 80% of the pump price and this won't change in the short term, a 30% rise would imply a doubling or more of the base price. It isn't going to happen.

[The Natural Philosopher]

The crude price lifted a little last week.

ts dripped back again.

I have to say I was hoping to crack 30p on the next tank :-(

[Dave Liquorice]

And is a fixed amount not a percentage of pump price.

Well not in the short term...

[Michael Chare]

Yes, or so my neighbour says. He managed to get a supply at 30p - for a group of us.

[Doctor Drivel]

I heard on the tube that there was going to an earthquake too.

[sPoNiX]

It is? EEEEEEK!

sponix

[sPoNiX]

I'm only passing on what I was told!

It only needs the price to go up to 110p or so to equate to a 30% rise.

Seeing as fuel prices were at this level in some places a few months ago (Due, we are told, to a storm in America) it seems entirely possible that a 30% rise could happen.

sponix

[biff]

As we move past the Peak in world oil production, demand will be greater than supply. Prices will rise and cause demand destruction through recession. Greater production will not be physically possible osot-Peak. More here:

[Dave Fawthrop]

| As we move past the Peak in world oil production, demand will be | greater than supply. Prices will rise and cause demand destruction | through recession. =20

More likely oil will replaced by other fuels after a relatively small rise in price. We do not need to use oil for home heating, so those using oil will find it cheaper to get a replacement boiler in a few years time.

--=20 Dave Fawthrop Sick of Premium SMS scams, SMS marketing, Direct marketing phone calls, Silent phone calls?=20 Register with

they work :-)

[Dave Liquorice]

We heat by oil, what will fuel that new boiler?

Natural Gas? Nearest supply is 2 miles away, have to be quite a large increase to exceed the cost of digging up two miles of road... and if the oil is running out so is the gas.

Electricity? Well most people round here heat by oil, say 500 households, 20kW boilers that's another 10MW of power to be generated from some where. Did I say gass and oil are running out... I'm not sure that the local distribution could cope either, even less chance if you go for a night storage system.

It's a serious problem that a glib "get a replacement boiler in a few years time" does not address.

[MM]

I read somewhere that if the Sahara Desert were covered in solar panels enough electricity could be generated to supply a third of the world's needs. I don't think we are thinking big enough with our plans for the future. For well over a hundred years many people dreamed of putting a tunnel under the channel, even starting tentative digs. Now we have the tunnel. It took vision and a great amount of money, but we have the tunnel.

Why not think of connecting power from where it could be generated to where it is needed? We think nothing of dropping a telephone cable between Britain and the US. We have to think much, much bigger than wind farms. What about all the untapped energy in the earth's core? Why don't we 'farm' volcanoes?

MM

[Doctor Drivel]

Rape can provide fuel too. Banks of solar panels in deserts can provide hydrogen. This can be piped or tankered to different parts of the world. There are alternatives to oil. We are not fully dependent on the stuff for ever. The ideal is obtain energy and to generate most power locally, which is possible in most countries, using mixtures of methods.

What makes most sense is to not use energy in the first place, by designing passive solar, superinsulation, etc.

[Matt]

Published today, a DTI/EST report on microgeneration. Might be worth reading but don't print it out as the pages might get all soggy.

[manatbandq]

No, prices will rise and (1) encourage energy conservation (2) make the extraction of all the currently untouched oil in shale beds and deep ocean, etc., economically viable. Higher oil prices, if managed correctly, are a win-win situation.

MBQ