JNN 24 Mar 2012  Washington : US President Barack Obama admits uncertainty in the Middle East in addition to the ongoing tension with Iran has increased oil prices by USD 20-30 per barrel in international markets.

“The key thing that is driving higher gas prices is actually the world’s oil markets and uncertainty about what’s going on in Iran and the Middle East, and that’s adding a $20 or $30 premium to oil prices,” he said in an interview with the American Automobile Association (AAA) on Friday.

Obama also stated that increasing demand for oil in China and India was also driving up prices,  as both of these countries are the Major Buyer of Iranian Oil  AFP reported.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported on Friday that fears over a sharp drop in Iranian oil exports are a major cause of wide fluctuations in international oil prices.

On Friday, Nymex crude spiked sharply jumping about 3 percent and hitting an intraday high of USD 108.25 a barrel, the highest level in three weeks.

Experts believe that turmoil in the Middle East has prompted oil prices to soar this year, which have reverberated to consumers in the form of higher gas prices.

Rising gas prices are one of the biggest worries that could derail the US economic recovery.

JAPAN :

Former executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) says Western tensions against Iran could hit Japan with an economic impact greater than that from the March 2011 earthquake.

As Japan is also one of the Buyer of the Iranian Oil and Liquified Petroleum Gas.

Speaking at an event in Washington sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Nobuo Tanaka said Japan will be hard hit if the tensions against Iran curb the supply of liquefied natural gas while Japan’s nuclear fleet is shut.

The US, Israel and some of their allies have accused Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear energy program.

The US and the EU have used this pretext to impose sanctions against Iran, while Tel Aviv has issued threats of a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Washington has repeatedly threatened Iran with “all options” on the table.

With 20 percent of its gas and 80 percent of its oil coming through the Strait of Hormuz, Japan would face a “disastrous impact” from a crisis in the Middle East, Platts quoted Tanaka, now a global associate at Japan’s Institute of Energy Economics, on Friday.

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan’s main island set off a devastating tsunami and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks. The tragic event triggered one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters, crippling Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant.

All of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors could be shut by early may for periodic maintenance and testing, Tanaka said. In Japan, those routine outages cannot end without approval from prefecture governments, which have declined to give that approval for any reactor, leaving 52 of 54 nuclear units shut.

Iran has repeatedly refuted the Western allegations regarding its nuclear energy program, arguing that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

United Kingdom :

The price of petrol has broken through the 140p-a-litre barrier for the first time in Britain, according to media reports.
The average price at the pumps has now reached 140.20p a liter, with diesel at a new record of 146.72p, the Belfast Telegraph quoted AA as saying on Friday.

Petrol prices have now risen more than 2.75p a liter in just three weeks, while the cost was only 132.25p a litre at the beginning of the year.

The price of diesel at the start of 2012 stood at an average of 140.56p.

The AA said that for the owner of a car consuming, on average, 106.17 liters of petrol a month, this year’s 7.95p-a-litre increase in petrol has added £8.44 to the monthly fuel bill.

In his Budget this week, Chancellor George Osborne said the fuel duty rise planned for August, which with Value Added Tax (VAT) added will amount to 3.62p a liter more for road users, would be going ahead.

The AA said that this rise would mean monthly petrol costs would, by August, have increased by more than £12 since the start of the year. The AA added that at current prices, this would slash two-thirds of the £18.33-a-month (£220 a year) increase in the personal allowance set out in the Budget.

“Just days after the chancellor refused to cancel the planned August rise, prices have now hit another painful barrier for Britain’s hard-pressed motorists. A figure of £1.40 a liter is a massive price for people to have to pay and there is no end in sight to rising prices. The way things are going the planned duty rise will see average petrol prices hit the £1.50-a-liter mark – forcing more and more people who need their cars off the road”, said RAC technical director, David Bizley.