Motorists were on Tuesday warned that fuel prices will rise inexorably towards £2 a litre as the oil price surged on a EU deal to block Russian oil imports.
Both petrol and diesel hit new forecourt highs on Monday but both fuels are expected to go sharply higher in the coming days.
RAC fuel spokesperson Simon Williams said: “The price of petrol moved up to yet another record by averaging 173.02p on Monday while diesel stood still at 182.58p. This makes the cost of filling a 55-litre petrol family car £95.15, and diesel £100.42.
“The EU’s decision to ban the majority of Russian oil imports will cause the barrel price to go higher still, spelling yet more misery for fuel prices in the UK. The wholesale price of petrol has already been increasing due to the increased summer driving demand which means we are likely to see average forecourt prices for petrol climb to 180p a litre in a matter of days. Sadly, far worse will follow as the current oil price of $122 will likely lead to an average price of a litre of unleaded hitting 185p.
“Diesel too is set to jump this week as the wholesale market starts to price based solely on non-Russian diesel. This, along with the rise in crude, is set to take the average price of diesel towards 190p a litre.
“We badly need the Government to take more action to ease the increasing burden on drivers. It seems very unfair that the Chancellor should be benefitting by around 30p a litre in VAT from sky-high pump prices when hard-pressed motorists are struggling to make ends meet.
“As VAT is a ‘tax on a tax’ applied on top of 53p a litre duty, it means drivers are paying 82p to the Treasury on every litre of petrol, so around £45 of the cost of filling a family car is currently tax.”
