I dont think its fair to blame the oil companies for the price of oil, the uk is still the cheapest place in the world to refine oil into whatever.
Since 1999 when i started driving the price of oil has gone up 9.5 times!!!, fuel at the pump has only gone up by about 60% this means the oil companies are taking a hit, in percentage terms.
Right now i am doing some work for maersk, they are converting 2 oil tankers, each at a cost of £100 million, these are expected to only be in service for 8 years
Another hit.
There is also the fact that none of the oil that we buy in the uk comes form uk waters.
Its all from the CIS and Azeri etc etc This also means new platforms, shipping and also paying people more to get them to work out there.