Theo LeggettTransport correspondent
Getty Images
The price of petrol and diesel has stopped rising after 43 days of increases, according to the latest figures from motoring organisation the RAC.
The temporary ceasefire in the Gulf has brought the price of crude oil down from its recent peaks, and with it the cost of fuel on wholesale markets.
However, prices still remain sharply higher than before the war started. Petrol is now selling for just over 158p a litre on average, up from 133p in late February, while diesel has risen from 142p a litre to 192p, the RAC said.
The motoring group said prices could start to come down over the next couple of weeks.
The outbreak of the US-Israeli war with Iran led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway that usually carries about 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, and this has sent global fuel prices soaring.
Crude oil is a key ingredient in petrol and diesel, meaning higher wholesale costs make filling up a car more expensive.
The recent increases means the cost of filling up a family car with petrol has risen by £14, while a tank of diesel costs £27 more.
But fuel prices remain below the levels reached in summer 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when petrol reached 191.5p and diesel hit 199p a litre.
Diesel has gone up more than petrol because it is harder to refine. The UK has to import around half of what it uses from abroad, and demand is very high globally.
“Wholesale fuel costs are now significantly lower than they were at the start of the month, so forecourt prices should begin to come down,” said the RAC’s head of policy, Simon Williams.
“As things stand, we’d expect petrol and diesel to drop by several pence a litre in the next week or so,” he added.
“It will be very interesting to see if this plays out as the data indicates. We hope it does as drivers could do with some relief at the pumps.”
Rival motoring group the AA said the chances of motorists seeing a cut in fuel prices would depend on where they lived due to what it called “the pump-price postcode lottery”.
“If you live in a town with competitive retailers, you may see some movement. If you live somewhere where they all watch each other to see who budges first, you won’t,” said Edmund King, the AA’s president.
In the past, the motor fuels sector has been accused of putting up prices quickly when the cost of oil rises, but only reducing them slowly when it falls back.
In late 2022, the Competition and Markets Authority said it had found some evidence of so-called “rocket and feather” pricing.
Since then, the CMA has carried out regular monitoring of forecourt prices, and said last month this scrutiny would be intensified in response to surging energy costs.
