Fuel hits more than £2 a litre at county forecourt
THE cost of fuel continues to increase as diesel prices above £2 a litre were spotted in Derbyshire yesterday.
Prestons Garage on Derby Road, in Ashbourne, was selling diesel at 202.9p a litre. Super unleaded petrol is priced at 204.9 and regular unleaded petrol at the garage is currently being sold at 191.9p a litre.
The garage said it expected prices will go down in the coming days.
According to RAC’s Fuel Watch, wholesale prices for petrol were at 188.74p a litre yesterday which the roadside assistance company also said was likely to go down in the coming days.
However, it added that diesel is set to increase in price compared with wholesale figures for yesterday which reached 196.36p a litre.
Because smaller rural petrol stations sell less fuel, they buy smaller quantities from wholesalers and therefore do not benefit from discounts applied when buying in bulk.
They therefore have to charge higher prices in order to make any profit, often just a few pence per litre of fuel sold.
Simon Williams, RAC’s fuel spokesperson, said: “The wholesale price of petrol reduced last week and now bigger retailers are starting to reduce their prices slightly. Smaller ones will still be dealing with the effects of higher wholesale costs.
“Diesel’s wholesale costs will be around £2 a litre fairly shortly, unfortunately, but petrol shouldn’t.”
Mr Williams explained that in the case of smaller forecourts like Prestons, in Ashbourne, because they are buying less frequently than larger forecourts they are more likely to be caught out by higher wholesale prices.
The same petrol station was charging 177.9p for petrol and 193.9p for diesel back in March, at the height of the fuel crisis.