Drivers warned of new petrol price rises

Drivers have been warned of a new round of petrol price increases after the cost of oil soared to a 13-year high.

Jittery traders sent the price of a barrel of crude oil to $35.21 (£19.66) today following the attack on western oil workers in Saudi Arabia at the weekend. Prices are the highest they have been since the build-up to the Gulf War in 1990.

Petrol prices have already started edging up to about 80p a litre in parts of the country, with more increases looking certain in the next few days.

Shell said it had begun pushing up prices at some locations over the weekend.

"It is an ongoing process," said a spokeswoman. "We have begun to make price increases to be in line with the market. Crude is at record levels, so inevitably it will feed through to the pump sooner or later." A spokeswoman for BP said: "We're monitoring prices and we aim to remain competitive but I can't speculate on what might happen over the next few days."

Oil industry experts said it was "only a matter of time" before the price increases started to be felt by drivers.

Bruce Evers of stockbroker Investec said: "How much higher they go is really dependent on how much higher the oil price goes - and it's looking uncomfortable at the moment."

The rises will reignite the debate over alleged oil firm "profiteering". Last week BP and Shell announced better than expected profits for the first three months of the year.