The Office of Fair Trading won't be launching a formal investigation into fuel prices, says chairman David Quirk MHK.

He said the difference between local prices at the petrol pump and UK prices could be explained by increased costs, stating: 'Whilst there have been structural changes within the market, with Manx Petroleum becoming an importer in its own right rather than a Shell agent, and the business of Total being sold to Ellan Vannin Fuels, the underlying business models are fundamentally the same.

'Neither the importers nor retailers have increased profitability since the last report.'

The last major report into road fuel prices was published in 2010 and concluded that the differences were justified by the extra cost of supplying an island market and the lack of economies of scale. The OFT says that since then it has been monitoring the market.

Mr Quirk said: 'We understand how important this market is for consumers and if we see problems we will not hesitate to act.'

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