Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on UK loosening Russian oil sanctions amid fuel crisis

The UK Government has loosened strict sanctions on Russian oil refined into diesel and jet fuel in third countries as prices rise. 

The effective blockade of the key Strait of Hormuz has continued to generate supply chain concerns, and jet fuel and pump prices are getting higher - with no hope for change in sight.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey says experts are predicting fuel prices will go higher in the next few weeks.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Devin Gray are UK correspondents with US. Hello, Gevin, hi
there right. What's this about the UK taking Russian fuel? YEP,
a big U turn for the UK. It has decided
that it will loosen strict sanctions on Russian oil refined
into diesel and jet fuel in third countries. So those
are predominantly going to be India and Turkey. Both those

(00:23):
countries take oil from Russia and refine it. Now. In
the past we haven't bought it because we don't want
to prop up the war machine that Russia has going
on in Ukraine. But that looks like things are changing,
and that is because, of course, the effective blockade of
the Key Straight of Hormu's waterway. Since the start of
the US Israel war with Iran, we have seen jet

(00:44):
fuel prices in Europe more than double. That has calmed
down a bit since the war started, but they're still
around half higher, and UK pump prices continue to rise.
The IRAC Motorial Organization this week said the average price
of unleaded petrol here comes in at about three dollars
fifty eliter. That's the highest since the war started, and

(01:06):
they predicted it's going to go much higher in the
following week, So that's why the government's done it. But
I have to say this is a complete, you know,
reverse of what they've been suggesting in the past. Indeed,
America has already loosened the restrictions and it got criticized
around the world, but strangely not by the UK. And
now the French President Emmanual Micron said the straight of

(01:26):
hornmu shut down quote in no way justifies lifting the
sanctions on Iran. Ukraine's president says that every dollar paid
for Russian oil is money for the war. Given what's
the update with this railway line, the AGES two, It
is an absolute disaster. There's some rude descriptions I could use,
but I won't and I'm afraid it just seems to

(01:47):
get worse. So originally this was due to be an
amazing high speed rail network HS two which would collect
London to Birmingham and then on to Leeds and Manchester,
and right from the start it was beset with problems.
But it was supposed to be ready this year. It
won't be ready for at least a decade. It was

(02:09):
initially estimated to cost some seventy billion New Zealand dollars
it's now said to be costing near two hundred and
forty billion New Zealand dollars. It was due to run
to Leeds and Manchester, It's now going to stop in
Birmingham in the Midlands. It was due to run at
three hundred and sixty kilometers an hour, it's now going

(02:30):
to run at three hundred and twenty to save money.
And it's a litany of disaster and it still isn't ready.
And this government has given an update predominantly blaming previous administrations,
mostly the Conservative Party, for how it was allowed to
get out of hand, and accuses the management team of
High Speed Too of adopting what it called a fortress mentality,

(02:53):
becoming cheerleaders themselves for the cause of high speed rail.
But either way, I'm afraid this has just shown that
we are not good at infrastructure in this country. And
anytime somebody gives you a quote and the taxpayers picking
up the bill, you probably need to triple it. Yeah. Really,
it's the same thing that happens here in New Zealand.
There's got to be a pattern now, And Gevin, what's
Fergie's mate's been up to? Well, this is a very

(03:17):
odd tale that's gone on for some considerable time with
a friend and business partner that she's had called Manuel Fernandez.
He's a former soldier and he wanted to start up
a lifestyle app called the Vouche. However, it failed. Fergie
was an investor to the tune of one hundred and
ten thousand New Zealand dollars we think, but she was
also an ambassador for the company. Now it's being reported

(03:40):
that although this lifestyle app has failed in the sort
of chaos as it were of the last few weeks
of its existence. When it was beginning to fail, one
of the workers claims that he was effectively warned that
he was breaking royal protocols and hacking into emails. It's

(04:01):
suggested those were Sarah Ferguson's emails and that the worker
effectively therefore could have the highest penalty to pay because
of breaches to royal security. Now that worker disputes this
going on. She has never hacked anything to do with
Sarah Ferguson and it's all a bit of a put
on job. But I have to say that the actual

(04:23):
instance again doesn't look good on Sarah Ferguson and who
she chooses, though I must stress that the Vousch and
it's found in Manuel Fernandez, deny any wrongdoing. They deny
that they ever put any pressure on this on this gentleman,
and we find out yet more about Sarah Ferguson's business dealings. Interestingkevin,

(04:44):
Thank you very much appreciate it. Gavin Gray, UK correspondent.
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