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The business secretary has issued a warning about inflationary pay rises after tanker drivers working for Shell settled a pay dispute with employers.

The deal came after a four-day strike by the drivers. They had originally wanted a 13% pay rise, and turned down 7%. Their final deal is not yet known.

John Hutton said the deal reflected the particular conditions in the industry.

He said: “There needs to be discipline in public and private sector pay if we are to keep inflation under control.”
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Facing the toughest political climate in a generation, the oil industry is using a barrage of advertisements to deflect anger over $4 a gallon gasoline prices.

Exxon Mobil has been particularly aggressive, running televised spots during the NBA Finals and network morning talk shows, and buying large print ads in the U.S. and Europe. Chief executive Rex Tillerson appears in one of the ads, which began running earlier this month, discussing the company’s goal of caring for the environment as it provides energy to the world. Ads from other oil companies hit on similar themes: investment in alternative fuels and technology required to produce oil these days.

Exxon’s ads are part of a growing effort by the industry to counter a political backlash against rising oil prices and global-warming worries. Oil companies have traditionally been the bogeyman for consumers during times of rising prices, with ad campaigns often employed to soften the industry’s image.
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Police are investigating a whopper of a fuel theft from a service station in Burbank.

Police on Monday said the service station’s owner reported 4,000 gallons of diesel disappeared sometime before 5 a.m. on Friday.

Burbank police Detective Sam Anderson says when the gas station opened at that time, workers found the underground diesel tanks had been drained.
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Talks to avoid another strike by Shell tanker drivers agree a pay deal for 641 drivers contracted to distribute fuel for Shell are to continue on Tuesday.

The drivers, employed by Hoyer UK and Suckling Transport, are to return to work from 6am today after a four-day strike - but without a pay agreement, the drivers’ union, Unite, has given warning of another four-day-stoppage from Friday.

A spokesman for Unite said: “We are still talking and I can say that we are not many miles apart.”

There are renewed fears that if the pay dispute drags on, other drivers contracted to work for other oil companies may also join in industrial action.
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Key milestones in the dollar price of crude oil from below $2 in 1970 to Monday’s record $139.89.

- 1970: The official price of Saudi crude oil is fixed at $1.80 per barrel.

- 1974: The price passes $10 after the first oil shock, sparked by the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

- 1979: Oil passes $20 as the Islamic revolution in Iran causes a second oil shock.

- 1980: The price tops $30 for the first time and $39 in early 1981 at the height of the war between Iran and Iraq.
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A man took petrol several times from the same Tauranga service station without paying before he was finally caught, a judge was told today.

Ford Wayne Tawhara, 24, unemployed, admitted five charges of theft when he appeared before Judge Thomas Ingram in Tauranga District Court.

He also pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified.

Sergeant Sean Brennan said Tawhara helped himself to petrol costing various sums between $5.75 and $104.81 from a Fifteenth Avenue service station on March 23 and 26 and on April 18 and 22.
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