The cost of filling an average family car with diesel has now topped £90 for the first time.
As oil prices continue to soar and hit household budgets, the RAC motoring group has said that the average price of a litre of diesel rose from 3p to a record 165.24p overnight – the biggest daily jump since 2000.
Tuesday’s oil embargo on Russia for invading Ukraine has left governments searching for alternative supplies. The UK gets 8% of its oil imports from Russia, with around 18% of it being diesel. A litre of petrol has also seen a rise of 2p, the RAC said.
The jump in prices is understood to have come from the rapidly-rising wholesale costs before Tuesday’s announcement that the UK intends to phase out its imports by the end of 2022. A barrel of crude oil then rose 1.3% on Wednesday, and experts say this will feed through into rising retail prices.
RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: “The diesel daily increase was the second largest on record since 2000. The cost of filling a 55-litre family car with petrol is now £87 – £7 more than it was at the start of the year. Diesel drivers are even worse off with a tank now costing more than £90 for the first time ever – £8 more than in early January.”
Robert Buckley, an energy analyst at Cornwall Insight, told the BBC the UK ban was “largely symbolic.” This is down to Russian oil being such a small part of its overall energy mix. However, with the USA also following suit with an oil ban, as well as the widespread boycotts by western companies, the move is likely to increase the already high oil prices in the coming days, he continued.
More worries of price rises at the pump are imminent, too: warnings of petrol topping an average of £1.60 a litre are expected this week, while diesel will progress very quickly to £1.70. The US said on Tuesday it would immediately ban Russian oil and gas, and the EU vowed to cut its gas imports by two thirds this year.
