UK pump prices eased for the first time since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, with diesel and petrol both edging down over Thursday and Friday. Diesel fell by 0.6p a litre over the two days and petrol by 0.3p.
Diesel was just below 191p a litre on Friday and petrol was just under 158p, leaving a fill-up still far above what drivers were paying in late February. Filling a car with diesel remained about £26 more expensive than then, while a tank of petrol cost nearly £14 more.
The RAC said more cuts could follow because wholesale costs were still below their recent peaks. Simon Williams said: “We're hopeful there will be further reductions amounting to several pence a litre in the coming days,” and added that after record price rises, drivers would be relieved to finally see prices going the other way.
The recent jump in prices has been steep. Over the past six weeks, average diesel prices climbed from 142p a litre to nearly 192p, while petrol rose from 133p to more than 158p. Those increases came as shipments were blocked for the past six weeks by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit route for oil and gas, in a region that usually provides about a fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Brent crude was trading at just under $70 a barrel before the conflict, then rose above $100 in mid-March and peaked at just over $119. The pressure is still being felt at the forecourt, even if prices have started to slip. Fuel remains below the highs reached in summer 2022, when petrol hit 191.5p a litre and diesel reached 199p after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The cost surge has fed directly into household anxiety. According to the Office for National Statistics, the share of people saying fuel prices were a reason for higher living costs rose to 75% in March from 38% in February. Aman Navani described “growing anxiety among households about global economic shocks” and said the rise in fuel prices has come as nominal wage growth has fallen sharply, with private sector workers seeing paltry real wage increases. He also said low-income and insecure workers have little buffer against rising costs as the impact of the war in the Middle East hits the UK.
The latest easing does not erase the shock of the past six weeks, but it does suggest the worst of the jump may have passed for now. The question for drivers is how far wholesale relief can spread before the next move in oil markets pulls prices back the other way.
