The retail cost of a litre of unleaded is set to reach 140p over the coming few days, with the Iranian conflict pushing the price of a barrel of oil past the $100 mark, up from around $60 just a couple of weeks ago.
An average litre of unleaded currently stands at 137.5p, with diesel at 150p, but the RAC has warned those prices are set to respectively rise to 150p and 160p over the next week if oil remains at $100.
At the time of writing a barrel of Brent Crude stands at $104, with West Texas Intermediate trading at $104.
A senior figure at one Top 50 Indie firm told Forecourt Trader that the cost of oil is “causing a lot of challenges”, and that despite being on a seven-day purchase cycle they are having “to manage fuel pricing day-by-day”.
The source said that with oil trading so high, “unfortunately, all we can do is to pass that onto the consumer because we can’t work on negative margins or very slim margins”.
They added: “What people have to understand is that with a three-million-litre [per annum] site, open 24 hours a day, you need 6p per litre just to cover the labour costs and to keep that site open”.
The RAC says the price of diesel is increasing “more quickly now than at any point since the start of the Ukraine conflict”, but added that drivers should “continue filling up as normal”.
Edmund King from rival breakdown firm the AA predicted “there will be gradual increases in pump prices, but this shouldn’t happen overnight as fuel has been purchased at previous prices” – though some independent operators buying fuel on a daily-price spot basis have already seen the cost of a litre of wholesale diesel rise by 20p.
King added that motorists should “consider cutting out some non-essential journeys and changing their driving style to conserve fuel.”
