Fuel prices are at an all-time high! You don’t need us to tell you that you can see it for yourself at the pumps. There has been a cut in fuel duty though, by 3p, which isn’t going to cut it thanks to the rising cost of everything these days.
This is why the cost of fuel is rising and what it means for you.
Prices have skyrocketed
To say that the price of fuel has soared to the next level these past few weeks is an understatement. We’re now paying an average of £1.68 for a litre of unleaded and don’t get us started on diesel. We’re paying more than we could have imagined for fuel these days, but when will it drop?
Last week we saw the fuel duty cut, which supposedly helped to lower the cost of filling up the average family car from around £92 to £89. Some retailers have been lovely in passing on the good news to motorists, and others have been quite reluctant to pass on these savings. Either way, this isn’t going to cut it when you think about it. This is a record new level that we’re talking about and we’re expecting them to climb even further, fingers crossed they don’t.
Fair play to the Chancellor who has attempted to ease the situation, but some would argue he hasn’t quite gone far enough. Global supply issues and other contributing factors haven’t helped with the daily rise in fuel prices and this has impacted our current cost of living crisis too, without a doubt.
Inflation is through the roof and so many motorists are struggling to fuel their cars. Price increases are happening left right and centre and it feels like there isn’t much that we can do about it.
If we could all fairly and fully benefit from the fuel duty cut, then that would be a step in the right direction. For this to happen though, retailers need to play their part too and reduce their prices and stop thinking about all that extra profit.
Why are the prices so expensive?
One of the main reasons why fuel prices are high at the moment is because Russia is one of the world’s largest producers of oil and gas. That means that the disruption that it had to its production recently has meant that it has had a global impact.
Disruption to supplies and with Russia facing international sanctions, with the amount of oil that Russia is producing, of course, there was going to be issued. The sanctions so far against Russia have mainly been for banks rather than energy.
Russia could also reduce oil exports to Europe if it wanted to, but so far so good, we’re not seeing this just yet, and hopefully, it stays that way.
When will fuel prices go down?
This is the question we all want to know. Surely the prices we’re seeing now aren’t going to stay like this forever! You’d hope not anyway. According to experts, high fuel costs are here and they are here to stay. This is not what we wanted to hear, but it’s better, to be honest.
With energy costs on the rise too, as well as all your other household bills, it should be no surprise really that this was going to happen with everything else going up too. It’s almost like as the world emerged from lockdown, prices began to rise and now here we are.
Thanks to the new high price increases generating people’s interest in new reserves, sadly this can take years for this type of action to get going and to have an effect on the market.
What can you do about the rising fuel prices?
At this stage, what can we do? It’s out of our hands. Whether you’re looking at filling up or holding off as long as you can to use what fuel you’ve got left in your tank, eventually you’re going to head to the petrol station and be swallowed up by the shocking rising fuel prices.
For the time being, there is nothing that we can do about these rising fuel costs. For us, it just means that we’re going to be paying more than we’re used to. All we can do is hope that one day, these prices will come back down at some point. All you’ve got to remember is that make sure you fill up at the cheapest retailer that you can find so then at least it feels like you’re getting a good deal.