What's happening to UK petrol and diesel prices now the US and Iran have a deal?
The RAC says it now costs £85.05 to fill up a 55-litre family car with petrol – £12 more than it did on 28 February
The RAC says it now costs £85.05 to fill up a 55-litre family car with petrol – £12 more than it did on 28 February - and £95.86 for a tank of diesel – £17.56 more than at the start of the conflict. The RAC's head of policy, Simon Williams, said: "Even more positively, the rate of reduction ought to accelerate as the price of a barrel of oil has been under $80 for the last two days – something we haven't seen since the start of March.
He said the price of petrol could fall below 150p a litre over the next week. Diesel is likely to fall to under 170p, he added. "If Brent crude stays at this level or reduces further, the longer-term picture at the pumps should get even better," said Williams. Despite the conflict, petrol and diesel prices remained below the levels reached in the summer of 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, when petrol reached 191.5p a litre and diesel hit 199p. Because transporting oil is a slow process, price movements in the wholesale markets take about a fortnight to show at the pump.
Fuel retailers have denied accusations of price gouging during the conflict. The official markets regulator said it had "not seen evidence of retailers actively changing their pricing strategies to take advantage of the crisis". A government scheme called Fuel Finder, external lets drivers compare the cost of fuel offered by petrol stations across the UK. Luke Bosdet, the head of policy at the AA, said the group had been surprised at the speed that prices had fallen and put it down to the scheme.
On 20 May Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said a planned 5p increase in fuel duty due in September would be postponed until 31 December because of the conflict. Bosdet added that despite price falls, road fuel is "still very expensive" compared with pre-pandemic levels when petrol was about 120p.
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