Motorists paying record prices at the pumps reacted with fury at news of a 135per cent rise in profits by oil giant BP - earning a massive £463 a second.
BP said on Tuesday that profits hit £3.6 billion ($US5.6 billion) in the first three months of 2010 - more than double the level last year.
The 135 per cent profits rise comes after the price of crude oil was pushed higher by recovery hopes for the global economy and due to market speculation.
Soaring profits: BP's performance was far betther than the City's forecasts
For the first three months of the year it works out at at £40million a day, and £1.6million an hour and £2,777 a minute.
Experts said the surge in crude oil prices and the weaker pound have fuelled massive increases in oil company profits while also hitting motorists hard, with average petrol prices now at record highs.
WHY FUEL IS SO EXPENSIVE
Where a litre of petrol costs 119.9p, 57.19p is fuel duty, 17.86p is VAT, 39.85p is actual cost of the fuel and just 5p goes to the retailer.
RAC Motoring Strategist Adrian Tink said: 'With motorists paying on average more than £5.50 a gallon for petrol, these results do little to lift the gloom over Britain's forecourts. While exchange rates and tax rises are as much to blame, motorists will undoubtedly find this a bitter pill to swallow and be left wondering why they're paying the record prices they are.'
Recent tax rises have also helped fuel the record pump prices, which have soared to more than 120p a litre compared to 95p a year ago. Prices soared this month through the previous record of 119.7p reached in 2008.
In his recent Budget Chancellor Alistair Darling decided to phase-in a near-3p fuel duty rise in three stages.
From April 1 drivers paid an extra 1p a litre, with a further 1p due in October and another 0.76p next January.
In response, protesters on Facebook are calling for drivers to boycott petrol stations on May 1 for a week in the run up to May 6 polling day, and hope it will put pressure onto the new Government - of whatever political complexion - to lower tax.
AA president Edmund King said: 'We accept that, following the 2008 collapse of fuel prices, refiners had to revive profit margins to stay in business, but question whether the recent surge in the petrol wholesale price, from $US680 in February to $US800 now, has gone too far.
'Record petrol prices are due primarily to the weakness of the pound, fuel duty increases and lack of refining capacity. However, the increased wholesale cost will have played its part in the more than 10 per cent cut in petrol consumption by UK drivers in recent months.'
The AA Fuel Price Report for April has found petrol prices in the UK continue to rise to new record highs, hitting rural drivers hardest. Almost three in four drivers in the South West, Wales and Northern Ireland are cutting back on car use, on non-fuel expenditure or both.
Average UK petrol prices have now reached 120.53p a litre, up 4.44p on mid-March’s average of 116.09p. This has added £2.22 to the cost of filling a typical 50-litre fuel tank, and raised the monthly petrol cost for a family with two cars by £9.43. The same family, who at the beginning of the year was spending £233.32 a month on fuel (109.88p), now has to find £255.93.
Since mid-March, the average price of diesel has risen from 116.87p a litre to 121.56, adding £2.35 to the cost filling a tank.
Research from the AA/Populus panel of 17,480 AA members has found that tolerance of rising fuel prices 'has finally snapped'.
In their manifesto, the Conservatives promise to consult on a ‘Fair Fuel Stabiliser’ that would cut fuel duty when oil prices rise and increase it when prices fall. The measure has received widespread support from motoring groups and road haulage firms.
BP's booming results compare with sluggish performance during the recession in the first quarter of 2009, when crude prices averaged just over $41 dollars a barrel, although a year later this figure stands at an average $76 dollars.
BP's performance was much higher than City forecasts after profits in exploration and production nearly doubled to £5.36 billion ($US8.29 billion).
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