British PM Tells Energy Giants to Cut Gas Prices After BP's Record £70m-a-day Profits

Not that it comes to a surprise considering the fact that global oil prices hit a new peak at $147 a barrel in July but oil giant BP announced record profits for the third quarter of 2008 of £6.4 billion or about $10.5 billion - a whopping 148% above the same period last year. Of course these kind of profits are bound to cause a public outrage. The firm's provocative increase in profits for July to September forced British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to indirectly urge BP and other energy giants to pass on oil price falls to motorists and householders. -Continued

"I notice that some companies have brought their prices down and I encourage others to do so to reflect the fact that the price of oil is now below 60 dollars when it used to be, for a few weeks, nearly 150 dollars," said Mr Brown.

"There has been more than a halving in the price of oil and, just as when the price goes up people see it immediately reflected in the petrol pump prices, we want to see the falling price reflected in the petrol pump prices, and we are determined to see that happens," the British Prime Minister added.

However, BP hit back saying that it was Britain's largest taxpayer as it has paid more than £5bn in tax in the UK over the past three years and, if fuel, excise duty and VAT were added, the total would then rise to almost £21bn.