....make a lot of money from petrol, they don't make a fortune. Well, of course they make a fortune but there are other parts of the industry much more profitable. The oil companies would love to put another few pence on each litre but they'd never get away with it because of the high level of taxation already in the price.

Once upon a time, BP owned just about it all. They drilled for oil in the North Sea, they made petrol at refineries in Coryton and Grangemouth(and elsewhere) and they sold it at the pumps. These days, BP has very little in UK because of the levels of taxation forced on them by the govt.(and they ain't doing very well in Russia or the USA right now either). I don't know about Coryton, but at Grangemouth, BP sold its Chemical works and its Refinery to a company called Ineos. BP sells the crude oil to Ineos....BP still makes the big bucks and Ineos is left with the refining and chemical business and trying to run it like any other business. I guess it's a similar problem at Coryton.