Bill's Comment Page

Petrol prices on the rise ...

The last time I filled my tank (last week I think) it cost 82.9 pence a litre (roughly USD 1.50 a litre) and we are warned to expect further increases this Autumn when taxes are raised. I wrote about supply problems for petrol a couple of months back and the latest alarming news coming out of Saudi Arabia, the world's major international supplier of oil, gives considerable grounds for believing that we are headed for a VERY rocky next few years. I have wondered for many years just how long the current regime in Saudi Arabia could continue largely unchanged; we may perhaps be just at the beginning of a phase of major, perhaps cataclysmic, change there which will affect the economies of major parts of the globe. A whole series of other factors has already begun to come into play (the rising role of China as a major importer of oil for its burgeoning 'industrial revolution', for example, which itself will mean that other major economies will have to adapt to survive). All of these factors, and more I cannot probably even imagine just now, are likely to bring to life very starkly that dark Chinese forecast/curse: "May you live in interesting times".