GAS prices have soared over the last year. They have risen by more than a fifth since July 2003 and in the last two months Guernsey Gas has announced increases totalling 17%.

From 13 September, customers will have to pay an extra 11% as the company reacts to rising wholesale costs and world oil prices.

But managing director Paul Garlick said: ‘The message we’re trying to get across is we are not profiteering: we’re having to push costs on to the customers because of those costs we’re paying for our product.’

Standing charges will remain unchanged by the latest increase, which has left the average household paying almost £130 extra a year.

The price of Brent crude oil hit $42 a barrel in London yesterday – it was trading at $28 in July 2003.

‘We’re at the end of the supply chain. When prices go up that much, then we get hit and that’s the situation we’re in.’

Oil prices are under extreme pressure with the Iraq situation and the closure threat for Russia’s second-biggest oil company as well as increased demand from east Asia.

‘Normally you need only one thing and prices rise, but with three or four different things having a negative impact, they just push prices up to unprecedented levels.

‘I would hope for a fallback in prices within the next six months, but you really don’t know. It depends on the political situation and Opec, but $40 a barrel really isn’t sustainable.’

The company is committed to reducing tariffs when worldwide energy costs fall.

Guernsey Electricity has not ruled out a price increase and the cable link contract with Electricite de France is currently under discussion.

The Social Security Department is concerned by the recent increases in fuel prices, which it said would be a worry for people on low income.

‘Householders on supplementary benefit and public assistance get an extra £14 per week towards fuel from October to the following May,’ said minister Mary Lowe.

‘This includes both homeowners and people who are renting.’

The States approves the level of the winter fuel payment each year as part of Social Security’s annual benefit uprating recommendations.

The next such report will go to the States at the end of this month.

‘In making our recommendations to the States, we do look closely at what has been happening to fuel prices,’ she said.

‘If we had been looking at RPI for the year to March, we would have seen a general reduction in fuel prices, but by the end of June the position had swung back to a general increase in fuel prices and, sad to say, that increase has continued.’

She added that people on benefit who had special needs for heating because of medical conditions could receive extra help with costs on top of the basic fuel allowance.

Chairman of Age Concern in Guernsey Joan James said the impact on the elderly would not yet be apparent.

‘It’s isn’t immediately that they will feel the effect; it’s when the winter sets in.’

n Unlike natural gas in the UK, that used here is derived from oil.