Drivers have to wait days to get their petrol shares, which range between 25 and 40 litres per week, and local authorities recently announced electricity cuts despite soaring temperatures.

It is not uncommon for drivers in northern Iraq to hang around in queues for several days before they are told that there is no fuel left at the station. On July 6, in the northeastern Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, about 500 drivers who had waited for fuel for more than three days poured into the nearby streets, set tires on fire and blocked four main streets of the city.

Countries need to oil their wheels:

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in conjunction with the UN, published a major agricultural study last week.

The study said that there are very few countries in the world that are able to produce biofuels that can compete on price with conventional fossil fuels. In fact, with the exception of Brazil, all countries are finding it very difficult to reduce their dependence on oil at all.

What would happen if the world were to start running out of oil? Conventional wisdom says we’ve got 30 years, but there’s a growing fear amongst petroleum experts it’s happening much sooner than we thought – that we are hitting the beginning of the end of oil now. So how soon will the oil run out, and can we stop our economy collapsing when it does? How prepared are we for the real oil crisis?

The increase in oil prices has led to protests, which have moved to the center stage of Indian politics, displacing the protests against reservations in medical and engineering colleges.

The Indepedent has a vision of How a 'green' Britain should look in the year 2020

Update [2006-7-8 9:53:22 by Leanan]: Record oil price sets the scene for $200 next year

With many commentators now on holiday the record $75.78 oil price last week was almost ignored. Yet with the world economy still hot the scene is set for a powerful rally in oil prices and the equally inevitable price spike. So will we see oil hit $200 a barrel in 2007?