Middle East chaos could lead to rise in gas bills
March 20, 2011 at 12:21 pm
The recent chaos in the Middle East, which has seen widespread protests and fighting in Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya, may seem far away. However, there’s a chance the consequences could be felt a lot closer to home in the form of rises in gas bills.
In an interview in The Telegraph, the chief executive of Centrica, Sam Laidlaw, said that he could not rule out price hikes as a result of the problems we are witnessing at the moment, which will be worrying for all gas customers in the UK.
As a result of the widespread unrest, oil went up to $119.79 per barrel, the highest since the financial crisis. On top of that, gas went up 2.7% to 64.5p a therm, the highest since October 2009.
What’s even more worrying for gas customers is that bills were already hiked back in December. British Gas customers saw their bills go up on December 10 so that the average dual-fuel bill is now £1,239 a year instead of £1,157.
At the same time as he refused to rule out price hikes as a result of the Middle East problems, Laidlaw also announced record profits for both British Gas and Centrica. British Gas saw profits of £742 million last year, a 24% rise on the previous year, and Centrica revealed record profits of £2.8 billion.
British Gas was not the only power company to announce its profits. Scottish Power announced profits of £1 billion and RWE npower said it made profits of £233 million, a 6% rise on last year.
