The continued rise of petrol prices in the UK has squeezed many households, but until recently it was put down to basic supply and demand, or various geo-political events. However, last week suspicions that oil prices have been rigged led to the raiding of oil company offices in London.

BP, Shell and the oil price reporting agency, Platts, all had their central London premises raided by European investigators. If price fixing is found to have taken place, comparisons will no doubt be drawn with the Libor scandal, in which several British banks were implicated in inter-bank rate fixing. The scandal resulted in huge fines being levied on banks like Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Outrage has been expressed by motoring groups across the UK, as well as motorists themselves, who have had to deal with high petrol costs in the midst of challenging economic times. Petrol, insurance, maintenance, car tax and breakdown cover all contribute to the average annual car bill, but petrol is often the largest cost.

Oil prices are thought to have been rigged since 2002, and in that decade have climbed by 80 per cent to around 135p per litre.

The manipulations could have cost UK motorists “thousands of pounds each”, according to Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers’ Association.

The European Commission has received praise for the raids, but questions have been asked about how two British oil giants managed to manipulate oil prices for so long.

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