The RAC says that for the first time since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, the prices of petrol and diesel have gone down a little.
It comes after weeks of rising prices, which were caused by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil and gas trade route.
The motoring group said that pump prices in the UK started to go down on Thursday and kept going down on Friday.
The drop has been very small; diesel has dropped by 0.6p and petrol by 0.3p in the last two days. Diesel costs just under 191p a litre, and petrol costs just under 158p a litre.
It costs about £26 more to fill up a car with diesel than it did in late February, and it costs almost £14 more to fill up a car with petrol.
The RAC thinks prices will keep going down because costs on wholesale markets have stayed below their recent highs. “We’re hopeful there will be further reductions amounting to several pence a litre in the coming days,” said Simon Williams, head of policy at the RAC. “After record price rises, drivers will be relieved to finally see prices going the other way.”
In the last six weeks, the price of diesel went from 142p a litre to almost 192p, and the price of petrol went from 133p to more than 158p.
But gas prices are still lower than they were in the summer of 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine and gas prices hit 191.5p a litre and diesel prices hit 199p.
People who are having trouble making ends meet are very worried about the rising prices of petrol, diesel and heating oil.
The Office for National Statistics says that in March, 75% of people said that the price of fuel was a reason for higher living costs. This was up from 38% in February.
According to Aman Navani, a senior research and policy analyst at the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, the survey showed that “households are becoming more worried about global economic shocks.”
“The rise in fuel prices comes at a time when nominal wage growth has fallen sharply, and private sector workers have seen paltry real wage increases. Low-income and insecure workers have little buffer against rising costs as the impact of the war in the Middle East hits the UK.”
What is going on with the prices of petrol and diesel in the UK?
The price of crude oil went up a lot after the fighting started in the Gulf, which caused the price of petrol to go up.
The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that connects the Gulf to the Arabian Sea, has been closed for the past six weeks, stopping shipments from the region, which usually provides about a fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Before the war, the price of Brent crude was just under $70 a barrel. After that, it went up quickly, reaching over $100 in mid-March and peaking at just over $119.
But oil prices have dropped back below $100 since the announcement of a temporary ceasefire earlier this month.
Motor groups say that a $10 change in the price of oil will usually cause a 7p change in petrol prices at the pump.
