Energy Bills Going Up - How Corporations Are Bleeding Us Dry

Working people are currently facing some of the highest fuel prices in history. Diesel has climbed above €2 per litre. Energy bills are set to rise. For workers in rural areas these rising costs are hitting especially hard, on top of already increasing prices for food and everyday essentials.

The media is trying to sell this as an inevitable consequence of the war on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. This is fake news deliberately made up to distract us workers from the simple truth that oil corporations are making 21 million more in daily profit right now, and the price increase is made up by speculation.

There is no sudden shortage of fuel in Ireland. Oil purchased months ago at lower prices is still being processed and sold. That means that the increased prices are actually caused by the very nature and fuctioning of capitalism.

Corporations are leeches, using every occasion to increase their profit and the war on Iran is a very welcome occassion that the leeches will use to try to benefit from as much as possible.

Ireland is barely dependent on oil from the Middle East in direct terms and less than 10% of its supply is connected to the region at all. The overwhelming majority of Irish fuel comes from Britain, the United States and Norway.

Workers need to understand: Ireland is not paying more for fuel because there is suddenly less oil. It is paying more because oil prices are set on financial markets dominated by speculation and corporate power. The price of oil is not determined at the well, but on futures markets where traders bet on what might happen next.

Who are the speculators? First, there are the large trading monopolies, considered the “invisible giants” of the oil market. They buy, sell, store, and ship physical oil, but exploit futures exchanges to an extreme degree to maximize profits.

Second, specialized hedge funds, which don’t physically own a single drop of oil, also speculate. They bet on exploiting price movements and thereby fuel them.

Third, investment banks are involved in the speculation. They act both for clients (usually large corporations) and on their own account. Fourth, the major oil monopolies are now their own biggest speculators. Companies like BP, Shell, and Total Energies have their own trading departments that operate like hedge funds.

They speculate using information about their own production and refining volumes, information they have access to more than others.

The Strait of Hormuz is indeed a critical route, through which around one-fifth of global oil supply passes. Around 70 oil tankers are currently stuck there, carrying 14 million tons of crude oil. That’s a lot, but it only corresponds to a single day’s global consumption.

In addition, about 2 million tons of oil transported by ship cannot be unloaded there daily. However, that’s only about 20 percent of the world’s daily crude oil production.

Since the oil industry won’t pass up the opportunity for a larger profit margin, energy costs will predictably rise across the board. This, in turn, will serve as an excuse for retailers to further increase the prices of food and consumer goods.

These new, additional hardships exposing once more: our living conditions are shaped by a small number of billionaires, holding shares of major oil corporations, in their global gamble.

What is presented as a “natural” market reaction is in reality a system where speculation and profit dictate the cost of basic necessities.

We can’t count on governments as these institutions are plain and simple the political agencies of the billionaires, creating the conditions necessary to squeeze more profit out of us.

As long as energy remains in the hands of profit-driven corporations, every crisis will be turned against us. The question is no longer whether we can afford fuel - but how long we accept a system that makes us pay for it like this.

In a socialist society, energy would no longer be controlled by a handful of billionaires and corporations gambling on global markets. Production would be organised collectively, based on need, not profit.

There would be no speculation, no artificial price hikes, no crisis profiteering. The resources exist, what stands in the way is not scarcity, but a system owned by billionaires and corporations. They will never let us move to a sustainable, planned economy.

Fuel keeps flowing - but prices rise. Not because of scarcity, but because of profit. Workers in Ireland must not carry this burden. We need to organise, resist and fight for a system that serves our needs, not corporate profits. That system is socialism.