Brown and Darling meets with oil bosses

28 May 2008

Chancellor Alistair Darling and prime minister Gordon Brown are meeting with oil chiefs today in a bid to encourage them to increase production and ease oil price rises.

Oil prices have soared by around 40 per cent since the start of 2008 and almost doubled over the past year, significantly raising energy and motoring bills for consumers.

The meeting in Scotland is being held between government ministers and oil industry leaders to discuss steep rises in oil prices to more than $135 (£68.20) a barrel in recent weeks, the BBC reports.

Pressure is growing on the government to scrap plans to raise fuel duty by a further 2p this autumn and a protest was held in London and along the M4 in Wales on Tuesday by lorry drivers and hauliers aimed at persuading ministers to lower road and fuel taxes.

The government is making millions in additional fuel taxes in the wake of soaring fuel prices and the haulage industry claims that taxes should be cut as a result.

In an article for the Guardian newspaper, Gordon Brown stated that oil prices should be at the centre of the forthcoming G8 summit in Japan in a bid to find global solutions to the problem.