Are high fuel prices the fault of the Oil companies, or UK Energy policy?

There’s been a bit of discourse on social media the past few days about how oil companies are fleecing consumers with the current increases we’ve been seeing in petrol and diesel prices.

It is certainly true that prices always seem to go up like a rocket and come down like a feather, feeding into a narrative that oil companies are evil and as such are profiteering.

As such fuel prices tend to be an emotive subject, however they are also subject to a lot of misinformation when it comes to why prices move the way they do.

There’s also the fact that, while I’m no expert on the energy sector, I do understand numbers, and the narrative that oil companies are evil is becoming a bit of a tired trope, notwithstanding the fact that the industry is subject to a 78% windfall tax, which could get raised further in the upcoming budget.

Below is a graphic comparing prices in July 2008, when crude oil prices surged to $147 a barrel, compared to prices now, where they are around $100, and on that basis the argument seems fairly easy to make that the consumer is being fleeced, given that UK pump prices are almost 30p higher now, with an oil price which is lower.

The problem with this argument is that it ignores a huge number of key variables which a simple chart like this cannot illustrate.