"Taoiseach warns against energy price gouging in response to Middle East conflict" RTE News

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mathepac

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The thread title is a direct quote from the headline on the RTE News web-site.

What a joke! Mick Martin bleats in the house while consumers face up to 50% rises in the price of home-heating oil as the wholesalers/distributors jack up prices unnecessarily; out-right profiteering as witnessed in other times of conflict.

RTE News Report

"Mary Lou McDonald gave the example of an elderly woman in Wexford who has seen the price of oil for her home almost double."

What's the consensus, given that we can't use the term rip-off in AAM?

Who is the bould Mick warning? Will he take action against the unwarranted price-rises? I know the answer and so do you.
 
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How have prices gone up so immediately?

Surely at this stage there is some mechanism to bring these pirates to justice and fine them significantly as an example for les autres

Bleating sums up Martin perfectly.
 
MM said there was no case for a rise in energy prices as we get ours from the North Sea. I hope his MOF has a better grasp of basic economics.
 
Duke of Marmalade said:
MM said there was no case for a rise in energy prices as we get ours from the North Sea. I hope his MOF has a better grasp of basic economics.
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That's the most disturbing thing; his total lack of understanding of the market and how prices are set.

I expect that sort of populist clap-trap from the Shinners but it's very disappointing hearing it from the people who are meant to be the grown-ups.


It's also worth noting that most of the heating oil providers that deliver to homes are price takers: they arrive at the nearest Depot with their tankers and full it up at whatever price they are offered on the day. The Depot usually sets the price based on the dollar price of oil that day.
Since the Excise charged on home heating oil is much lower than the Excise charged on Petrol and Diesel the retail price of the home heating oil fluctuates more in percentage terms when the wholesale price fluctuates.
 
Purple said:
It's also worth noting that most of the heating oil providers that deliver to homes are price takers: they arrive at the nearest Depot with their tankers and full it up at whatever price they are offered on the day.
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Thanks for that clarification. I would doubt that outright price gouging is happening. I presume the tanker operators are also subject to the current market rate - otherwise they would be running a big risk over the time taken for their transit.
 
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Duke of Marmalade said:
I presume the tanker operators are also subject to the current market rate - otherwise they would be running a big risk over the time taken for their journey.
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Exactly. Where I work we buy a lot of metal. It's sold at whatever the price is per Kilo is that day on the London Metal Exchange. That means the supplier's risk is levelled out over time.
 
Our local Applegreen put the price of Unleaded up by 5c overnight. If the oil is bought in advance (long before the war) how can they justify that ?
 
redstar said:
Our local Applegreen put the price of Unleaded up by 5c overnight.
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That seems to be the case with most garages. Maybe I am naive but it seemed to me that there was reasonable competition at the pumps so I suspect there is a reasonably innocent reason rather than opportunistic gouging by them all.
On an off topic point I was amazed at this TankerRadar map.
1772640130029.webp
 
The price of petrol and diesel is not directly linked to the crude price , it is the refined price, it's linked to the Rotterdam spot price on a system called Platts, the wholesale price to fuel retailers is set each day by the oil companies for next day delivery, and I can tell you since Monday the price has gone up 20c ex Vat for diesel but not as much for petrol, if a retailer has got any deliveries since Monday they will be losing money if they don't put it up. Just so people know the facts. It's a pity M.Martin couldn't find this out before talking on air about price gouging and every increase also benefits the Gov because VAT is added as a percentage at the end of the net price.
 
Shelby219 said:
It's a pity M.Martin couldn't find this out before talking on air about price gouging and every increase also benefits the Gov because VAT is added as a percentage at the end of the net price.
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One thing the bould Micko could do is to vary the VAT rate for consumers in order to stabilise the price they pay for home-heating oil rather than join the long list of price gougers he condemns. Too innovative? I appears that so is thinking, or even staying informed, in Government.
 
I think gouging was certainly a trait in previous decades, but its pretty much a tightly regulated market now.

Afterall, if govt is charging 60%* on litre of fuel they better have the back-up resources to ensure that we are not being skrewed.
 
mathepac said:
Mods, this is clearly a consumer issue surely
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Absolutely, the price of energy is a consumer issue, but you drove it into Letting off Steam territory with your first comments:

mathepac said:
What a joke! Mick Martin bleats in the house
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Usually a topic starts off on a civilised basis and then on page 2 it deteriorates into Letting off Steam territory but you didn't bother to wait for page 2 so a moderator moved it here and I agree with their decision.

Askaboutmoney is not the Joe Duffy Show or X.

If you want to have a civilised discussion, keep it civilised e.g. "Why has the price of oil already risen when we have 3 months supply in storage?" and we would be having a civilised discussion in the consumer forum.

Brendan
 
Shelby219 said:
if a retailer has got any deliveries since Monday they will be losing money
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I suppose if they still had stock, yet charged the spot rate for that it could look like gouging. But the other way round if spot was falling they would have no option but to follow.
 
Purple said:
It's also worth noting that most of the heating oil providers that deliver to homes are price takers: they arrive at the nearest Depot with their tankers and full it up at whatever price they are offered on the day. The Depot usually sets the price based on the dollar price of oil that day.
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The minister on the radio this morning made a point about some constituent who had ordered and paid for his oil who had the ordered cancelled and the money returned.

It's pretty tough on the oil distributor if they sell it at X today but buy it for more than X tomorrow before they deliver it.
 
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