Petrol prices have been rising for months, but the war in Ukraine has sparked a spike and pushed fuel costs to unprecedented levels, causing headaches for motorists around the world
The latest figures from RAC’s Fuel Watch show petrol is now over £1.65 a liter and diesel over £1.76.
This means diesel is now up 21p since the start of the month and petrol is up almost 13p – the fastest increases on record.
At this time last year it used to cost around £67.97 to fill an average family car with petrol, now it costs up to £90.7 for petrol and £96.82 £ for diesel.
Simon Geale, executive vice president and chief purchasing officer of supply company Proxima, told Express.co.uk the high prices “all trace back to the Ukraine crisis”.
He explained that it would take a “significant restructuring” of the supply chain to close the shortfall of “five million barrels” of Russian oil.
Mr Geale predicted that we are heading towards a period where we will see a repeat of high prices “for weeks or potentially months”.
However, the recent decline in oil prices which is believed to have been caused by the ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine may cause prices to decline sooner than initially expected.
Francis Fabrizi, senior analyst for CrystalFX LTD, told Express.co.uk: “Oil prices this week fell below $100 a barrel on positive ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine and growing concerns about rising Covid cases in China.”
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“We remain hopeful that retailers will soon begin to pass recent reductions on to drivers on their next purchase. This should lead to petrol stabilizing at around 160p while diesel should remain where it is price based. current wholesale”.
Mr Fabrizi warned that if the war in Ukraine continues or escalates further, we could see prices soar even higher.
He added: “According to our analysis, we could see oil prices fall to $76 a barrel in the coming months, although if the tension between Russia and Ukraine continues, we can expect that that oil prices rise over the long term to around $160 a barrel.”
Experts predict the government will have to step in if high costs continue to place a heavy burden on drivers.
Mr Fabrizi said: “We expect petrol prices to come down eventually, but not as soon as we hope. We may have to see some form of government intervention to put a cap on prices s ‘they continue to rise much higher.’
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Source: www.express.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-03-19 06:00:00