There’s nothing average about fuel price at M4 services
PRICES of petrol and diesel have fallen significantly from where they were – but there are a few service stations in South Wales where you might not even notice that the cost of filling up across the UK has actually dropped.
Pumps at motorway services are notoriously more expensive places to fill your car, but one in particular in South Wales is currently a whopping 33p per litre more for diesel than the UK national average.
Pont Abraham in Carmarthenshire is the last M4 service station available for anyone travelling west from England or more easterly parts of Wales.
There are plenty of other filling stations further west as you head towards Cross Hands, Carmarthen and beyond, but many drivers, perhaps unfamiliar with West Wales, pull off at Pont Abraham – where the M4 connects with the A48 – to fill up, whereas locals will know there are usually cheaper alternatives nearby.
At the end of March of this year, when the whole of the UK was seeing a surge in fuel prices, the average cost of filling up your car topped 178p per litre for diesel and 164p per litre for unleaded, according to data collated by the RAC. At this time Pont Abraham was charging almost £2 per litre (199.9p) for diesel and 191.1p for unleaded, more than 20p above the average price for both and a huge increase on the 166.9p (diesel) and the 165.9p (unleaded) it was charging just two months earlier in January.
In June, prices at Pont Abraham had shot up again to 208.9p for diesel and 206.9p for unleaded – a jump of more than 40p per litre in the space of six months. In June, the average price per litre across forecourts in the UK was 198.9p for diesel and 191.1p for unleaded.
But, alarmingly, while prices have since fallen again, although to still much higher than they were prior to the escalation, if you look at today’s average – 189.5p for diesel and 165.7 for unleaded – the price at the Pont Abraham pumps has once again increased.
As of Wednesday, it was 211.9p per litre for diesel and 198.9p per litre for unleaded – 22p and 33p more than the UK national average respectively.
So while the UK average has come down in the past few months, the cost of fuel at Pont Abraham has climbed yet again.
Euro Garages, which manages the Esso petrol station at Pont Abraham, has thus far not responded to requests for an explanation about why fuel at the station is so expensive relative to many others.
Further west, in Carmarthenshire, Whitemill Garage, situated on the A40 between Carmarthen and Nantgaredig, is also run by Euro Garages. However, fuel there is strikingly cheaper, at 191.9p per litre for diesel and 165.9p per litre for unleaded.
Further west again and the Morriston filling station on the edge of Carmarthen is currently charging 190.9p for diesel and 161.9p for unleaded, while the Tenby Road filling station located on the A40 heading west towards Pembrokeshire has its prices currently set at 189.9p for diesel and 163.9 for unleaded.
While it’s accepted that motorway service stations charge more for fuel than supermarket pumps or those situated in more rural locations, as of last Thursday lunchtime, a litre of diesel at the BP filling station at Swansea West services, the closest M4 facility to Pont Abraham, cost 207.9p, with unleaded costing 196.9p.
Both amounts are considerably higher than the current average price, but still below that being charged at Pont Abraham.
Euro Garages declined to comment on its pricing model and why fuel costs what it does at Pont Abraham.