Rising oil prices are on a slippery slope to disaster

When hauliers blocked the streets of London, Gordon Brown flew to Aberdeen to talk to Britain’s oil bosses. Less than a month later, tanker drivers are threatening further chaos and the Prime Minister wants to fly to Saudi Arabia to talk to Opec.

The pow-wow in Jedda on Sunday between oil-producing and consuming nations will not produce cheap diesel but Mr Brown knows he must be seen to do something – the oil price has almost tripled in two years and expensive fuel is hurting every business, from airlines to chemical manufacturing.
The soaring cost of moving goods about the world threatens to unravel a complex web of trade and manufacturing. It is not just about importing refrigerators from China or football boots from Vietnam. It is also about the price of food. Farming is energy intensive – diesel is needed for tractors, fertilisers are made of by-products of oil and gas, and grain is shipped thousands of miles across the ocean.

The Times