{"id":778390,"date":"2026-09-22T01:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T01:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/778390\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T01:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T01:34:10","slug":"half-my-days-pay-goes-to-filling-up-my-car-now-diesel-crisis-ripples-across-britain-petrol-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/778390\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Half my day\u2019s pay goes to filling up my car now\u2019: diesel crisis ripples across Britain | Petrol prices"},"content":{"rendered":"

The smoke rising from the Kapotnya oil refinery<\/a> to the south-east of Moscow marks one of Ukraine\u2019s biggest air raids on the Russian capital since the start of the war, and the latest salvo in an energy crisis that threatens to affect households and businesses across the globe.<\/p>\n

More than 1,500 miles away, British motorists are braced for the ripple effect from that conflict, and the US-Israel war on Iran. Average UK diesel prices are expected to reach record highs within days \u2013 while across Europe and the US<\/a>, pump prices have already surpassed all-time highs.<\/p>\n

In a call on Sunday, Donald Trump pressed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to halt strikes on Russian refineries over concerns that the attacks were pushing up global fuel prices, the Financial Times reported. On Truth Social, Trump said<\/a> Russia has \u201cunfortunately lost control of its Diesel Oil Industry\u201d and called for an end to \u201cthis ridiculous and never ending war\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rise in UK fuel prices have pushed the inflation rate to 3.1%. Above, a Texaco petrol station in Northwich, Cheshire, UK. Photograph: Christopher Furlong\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

While the price of Brent crude oil \u2013 which briefly fell below $100 a barel on Monday \u2013 remains in flux, already hard-pressed households and small firms face a far greater cost threat at forecourt pumps as the combined impact of Russia\u2019s war-damaged refineries and the Middle East crisis has erased about a fifth of the world\u2019s diesel supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cAround half my day\u2019s pay goes to filling up my car now,\u201d says Jon Barden, a former humanitarian adviser turned handyman, who says his fuel costs have doubled. His diesel Ford estate, once used for camping trips, is now used to carry heavy tools to jobs around Tottenham in north London.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Barden, a handyman, says his fuel costs have doubled. Photograph: Supplied<\/p>\n

Across Britain\u2019s forecourts, the average price of diesel has climbed by 54% to 196.28p a litre since the Middle East crisis began in late February. It is expected to reach a record \u00a32 a litre within days, with some forecourts already charging above the psychologically important mark.<\/p>\n

In Europe, pump prices have already hit record highs in recent weeks, leading to unrest and growing calls<\/a> for government leaders to protect consumers from the surge in cost.<\/p>\n

While the popularity of fully electric and hybrid petrol vehicles may be on the rise in the UK and Europe amid attempts to move away from polluting fossil fuels, diesel remains the overwhelmingly dominant fuel. It is the single biggest cost for many independent traders and small business owners, powering transport, tools and services. It is also the economic lifeblood for farmers<\/a>, and logistics and haulage businesses, layering costs on to grocery bills and consumer purchases.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had to put my prices up,\u201d says Barden. \u201cI don\u2019t want to because the people around here don\u2019t have a lot of money. But when fuel prices go up everything else follows. The things I need to buy from Wickes to do a job will cost more before I even fill up,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

In part, the surge in fuel prices is due to the rise in global oil prices following Iran\u2019s effective blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital trade route for Gulf oil. The price of Brent crude has climbed to a four-year high, raising the cost of refined oil products such as diesel and gas oil.<\/p>\n

Motorists form a queue as they wait to refuel their cars at a Rosneft gas station in Moscow on July 3, 2026. Photograph: Igor Ivanko\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Yet the most pressing energy crisis is not a shortage of crude, but a shortage of the refining capacity to turn crude into the fuels consumers need. The Middle East crisis has severely damaged many of the region\u2019s refineries, which once supplied 10% of the world\u2019s fuels. What little can be produced has struggled to circumvent the blocked trade artery.<\/p>\n

Output from Russia\u2019s war-damaged refineries has fallen by almost a third over the past year to reach a 20-year low following sustained drone attacks by Ukraine, according to the International Energy Agency. The latest strike on Kapotnya came after a similar attack<\/a> by Ukraine in June.<\/p>\n

Although Russian oil exports have been subject to toughened EU sanctions since 2022, a reduction in exports to other parts of the world, including Asia<\/a>, is likely to push up global prices.<\/p>\n

In China, which hosts the world\u2019s largest refining capacity, and had been the largest importer of Iranian crude, exports of refined oil products have been capped since March to safeguard the country\u2019s domestic supply.<\/p>\n

The global refining slump has helped to keep oil market prices down by dampening the demand for crude. But this is cold comfort for economists who warn that the \u2018crack spread\u2019 \u2013 or the price difference between crude oil and its refined products \u2013 has climbed above $100 a barrel on the continent for the first time and is likely to rip through the economy by raising the cost of all transported goods, as well as household bills.<\/p>\n

A London Black Taxi refuels at a BP Plc petrol and refueling station in London. Photograph: Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Diesel in particular is \u201cthe workhorse fuel that powers business, haulage, deliveries and rural communities\u201d, according to Luke Bosdet, the AA spokesperson on fuel prices. \u201cIncreased fuel costs are passed on to customers, and then on to consumers, which adds to inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n

While sales of new diesel passenger cars have plummeted over recent years<\/a> as motorists increasingly opt for petrol, hybrids, and electric vehicles, the UK\u2019s consumption of diesel has continued to climb because of its role as a crucial industrial fuel.<\/p>\n

UK diesel price chart<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost everything on supermarket shelves got there on a lorry,\u201d Richard Smith, the managing director of the Road Haulage Association said. \u201cWhen diesel goes up that cost has nowhere to go but on to the price of goods.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AA\u2019s chief concern is for \u201csmall businesses, such as taxis and vehicle-based services, and rural communities who already do higher mileages even before diesel costs went through the roof\u201d, Bosdet adds. \u201cThey don\u2019t get to add diesel surcharges to invoices, like many of the big companies, for fear of losing customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mehmet, from Clacton, began driving black cabs in central London 35 years ago. \u201cWhen I first started, diesel cost 10 bob a gallon,\u201d he laughs. In modern terms this would be 11p a litre, or a fraction of the looming \u00a32 a litre average expected nationwide within days, while cab fares remain capped.<\/p>\n

Diesel taxis are easily outnumbered by EVs in London, but they still make up about a third of the black cabs. Drivers were told in February that they would be allowed to raise their fares by 4% this year. At the time, the rise was above inflation \u2013 amid concerns over an exodus of black cab drivers. However, the US-Israeli bombardment of Iran ignited a war that has caused fuel costs to surge and inflation to remain well above the Bank of England\u2019s 2% target, at 3.1% last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Smoke rises from an oil refinery following a Ukrainian drone strike in Moscow, Russia, on 20 September. Photograph: Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re stuck with it,\u201d says Mehmet. \u201cWe don\u2019t want the meter price to go up, because then we lose custom. But we can see oil companies making billions in profit while we take home less. How can that be right?\u201d<\/p>\n

The UK may be acutely exposed to the global squeeze on road fuel supplies. The number of refineries in the UK has dwindled since the start of the century from nine to four, causing the UK\u2019s reliance on diesel imports to climb from 14% of the UK\u2019s diesel consumption in the early 2000s to 54% last year, according to Fuels Industry UK.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth de Jong, chief executive of Fuel Industry UK, said: \u201cOur latest annual statistics, published earlier this week, show that UK demand for petroleum products increased by 1% in 2025 to almost 61m tonnes, while the closure of the Grangemouth and Lindsey refineries reduced UK refining capacity by almost a quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are currently having to import about 55% of our road diesel, meaning a growing dependence on overseas supply. Global events such as the conflict in the Middle East demonstrate the vital role that UK refineries play and why they are crucial to our economy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The smoke rising from the Kapotnya oil refinery to the south-east of Moscow marks one of Ukraine\u2019s biggest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-778390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}