Petrol prices look set for new 2026 peak this weekend
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In doing so, the average will be the highest since November 2022
Average petrol pump prices across the UK look set to hit a new peak for this year and the highest price since November 2022. That is despite wholesale costs not yet reaching the levels seen in the first half of May.
Yesterday (July 30), petrol on the forecourts typically cost 159.5p a litre, having gone up more than 3p this week. It had reached its peak for the year at the end of May with an average of 159.7p.
Only on 30 November 2022, when petrol averaged 159.9p a litre, will the average cost to drivers have been higher.
That May peak had come off the back of wholesale costs exceeding 72p a litre earlier that month. Currently, while renewed conflict in the Middle East has sent oil and fuel commodity levels shooting up again, petrol’s cost value is around 3p lower.
Diesel, meantime, has been going up rapidly in price to average 178.2p yesterday. However, its peak this year was 192.4p in mid April.
Pump prices had fallen to early July lows of 150.7p for petrol and 164.8p for diesel.
“AA polling indicates that 20.5 million UK drivers will take to the road in the third week of the holiday season. Among them, 2.2 million will cover 100 to 200 miles, 1.5 million will travel 200 to 300 miles and 1.3 million will go even further.
“This latest switch in forecourt fortunes therefore comes at a very bad time,” says Luke Bosdet, AA spokesman on pump prices.
“The intriguing aspect of current pump prices is that, in early May when wholesale costs shot up 3p to 6p for more than a fortnight, average petrol prices put on less than 2p. Fuel Finder compliance started to be enforced at the beginning of the month and that likely had an impact.
“When costs plummeted from late May onwards, pump prices followed rapidly which was unlike previous years of ‘rocket and feather’ pump pricing.
“Oil and wholesale costs will fall again at some stage, likely because of a new US-Iran ceasefire. The AA will then be watching to see if the recent fuel trade behaviour repeats itself with another swift drop or whether fuel stations think they have figured out how to deal with Fuel Finder and revert to their old practices.
“Even so, drivers this weekend will be able to beat the higher prices with Fuel Finder-powered mobile apps, whether that directs them to a cheap supermarket or a competitive independent looking to grab passing trade.”
