Petrol Prices Climb Again as the Gulf Shock Hits the Pumps
The escalation in the Gulf is feeding through to British forecourts. Average unleaded, which had fallen to 150.6p a litre earlier in the month, has climbed back above 151p, with diesel near 167p, and the RAC warns pump prices could rise a further couple of pence this week as the oil above $85 a barrel works through. The motoring group says the recent savings for drivers “could begin to disappear”, with the scale of any rise depending on whether the US-Iran conflict escalates further.
The transmission from a Gulf chokepoint to a British forecourt is quick: a premium goes into crude within hours of a shock, reaches the pumps within a fortnight, and feeds the wholesale gas price that sets energy bills within weeks. The timing is punishing for the incoming government, which inherits stretched public finances and a chancellor-in-waiting pledged to discipline; a fresh inflation shock would narrow its options and reopen the argument over the fuel-duty freeze that is the main thing holding prices down. The Bank of England would face the same bind that has run through this whole conflict — oil-driven inflation against a slowing economy — complicating any path to lower interest rates. For households the practical read is blunt: the brief easing at the pump has reversed, and it is tied to a war with no clear end. Watch where oil settles, whether ministers signal further duty relief, and the read-through to the next inflation figures.