OIL COMPANIES AND THE OFFICE OF FAIR TRADING

That this House urges the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to investigate oil firms active in the UK; calls on the Government to consider the emergency actions being taken in other G20 nations to cut fuel prices, for example President Obama strengthening federal supervision of the US oil market and increasing penalties for `market manipulation', and Germany and Australia setting up a new oil regulator, with orders to help stabilise the price of petrol in that country; further urges the OFT to note that the Federal Cartel Office in Germany is now investigating oil firms who are active in the UK, after allegations of price-fixing; and finally notes reports in The Sun and elsewhere that oil companies are taking at least three weeks to pass on cheaper oil prices to motorists and that while the price of oil has dropped by 28 per cent over the last threemonths, the price of petrol at the pumps has only dropped by five per cent.