Drivers face more pain at the pumps as oil prices soar to a four-year high

MOTORISTS were last night warned to brace themselves for record prices at the pumps as oil hit a four-year high.

Crude nudged above $8 a barrel on fears that the supply could soon fall, after Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world’s largest oil producers, rejected calls from US President Donald Trump to increase their production rates.

Yesterday, as industry analysts predicted it could hit $100 a barrel by the end of the year, the RAC warned that further increases ‘would almost certainly mean higher fuel prices for UK drivers’ who currently pay an average of 131. p for unleaded and 134.4p for diesel.

The RAC said that drivers are ‘likely facing record prices’ above the previous high, reached in April 01 , of 14 p per litre for petrol and 148p for diesel if this coincides with a further fall in the value of the pound. A rising oil price is likely to also hit households with higher gas and electricity bills.

The latest surge in oil, hitting a price not seen since 014, has dashed hopes that prices at the pumps could ease in the coming weeks. The AA said at the weekend that it was still waiting for retailers to pass on a 3p drop in wholesale oil prices – equivalent to £1.50 a tank – as prices fell earlier this month. But yesterday it warned prices could go up again as it accused ‘market speculators’ of trying to ‘ramp up’ the oil price to boost profits.

A spokesman said: ‘Drivers are caught in a vice between fuel stations that won’t pass on recent drops in the wholesale price and market speculators trying to talk up the commodity price.’

The fall in the value of the pound since the Brexit vote has helped push up the fuel price in the UK as oil is denominated in US dollars.