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France called on the G7 on Tuesday to press oil-producing nations to boost their output in a bid to bring down prices that have reached record highs and thrown a spanner in oil-fired economies.

Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said she would put the request to her counterparts of the Group of Seven club of rich countries to seek a common front with Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

“We cannot forever be in a market system in which the price is permanently on the rise, to the benefit of producers, who are building up major oil revenues,” Lagarde told France 2 television.
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Even as the cost of crude oil has soared in recent years, the amount pumped from the ground hasn’t.

Worldwide oil production has barely budged, despite record prices. Since the start of 2004, oil’s price has gone from $33 per barrel to $132. Production, meanwhile, has risen just 1.8 percent, to 84.6 million barrels per day.

That’s not enough to keep pace with the world’s growing thirst for oil, which has increased 3.7 percent during the same time. And the imbalance between supply and demand keeps pushing prices higher. It’s one of the main reasons gasoline now costs more than $4 per gallon.

This isn’t the way economics are supposed to work. When a product is in short supply, the price rises, and the companies that make it usually produce more so they can cash in. Supply eventually outstrips demand and the price goes down.
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Biofuel pioneers who ran a lorry to Timbuktu on factory reject chocolate are hoping to enlist supporters in a novel holiday this summer. A two-week “Grease to Greece” rally will challenge entrants to drive from London to Athens in diesel cars fuelled only by cooking oil.

The drivers, as well as raising money for the British Heart Foundation, will win points for speed on racetrack sections and for “fat finding” at restaurants and takeaways along the 2,500-mile route. Entry requirements include “the ability to explain to a Croatian kebab shop owner that you need his grease”.

It is the latest in organiser Andy Pag’s series of attempts to highlight cheap alternatives to diesel using recycled fat. “The aim is also to give a further test to our belief that waste vegetable oil for long distances is practical and feasible, and to have a bit of a laugh on the way,” said Pag, 34. “Contrary to popular perception, diesel engines don’t need to be converted to run on biodiesel, and most diesel cars can comfortably cope with blending vegetable oil in with regular fuel.”
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Air New Zealand is looking to save more than $100 million in fuel costs a year as it puts smaller planes on services to London.

Surging oil prices are causing airlines around the world to brace for slower growth, tighter earnings and deeper cost cutting.

Last week Air France KLM warned it would have to expect a 1.1 billion euro ($NZ2.25 billion) rise in fuel costs, squeezing profits this year and forcing it to find 150 million euros in savings.
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Lorry drivers are to pour into London for what organisers hope will be the largest-ever fuel duty protest in the capital.

Hauliers are angry at soaring fuel prices which have resulted in the average cost of diesel passing far beyond the 120p-a-litre mark.

Led by lorry drivers from Kent, the protest is expected to attract hundreds of hauliers from all around the UK.
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Business is good for John Leighton. His company, which makes anti-theft devices for the diesel tanks of lorries and buses, has seen sales increase by 45 per cent so far this year amid warnings of an upsurge in “fuel rustling” sparked by sharply rising forecourt prices.

While petrol prices have risen inexorably in recent weeks to about 114p per litre, diesel – a fuel that could once be relied upon to undercut the cost of petrol – is now on average 12p per litre more expensive, which is causing financial difficulties for heavy users such as the haulage industry.

The AA said the 5.7 per cent rise in British diesel prices in the past month was the steepest since 2000 and warned that the intervention of speculative investors on world crude oil markets was helping to push up prices to more than $135 (£68) per barrel – more than double the cost of 12 months ago.
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