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Diesel drops to lowest price in six years

As oil tumbled to $40.40 – the lowest barrel price since February 2009 – RAC Fuel Watch data for November also showed the average price of petrol reduced for the fifth month in a row from 107.67p at the start to 106.98p as well as hitting a nine-month low on 11 November at 106.92p. Diesel, however, reduced to its lowest average price since late December 2009 when it reached 109.48p a litre on 30 November, having started the month at 109.77p.

Two supermarket promotions over the Black Friday period also saw petrol fall below the £1 a litre market, albeit on a temporary basis.

The RAC Fuel Watch report shows a barrel of crude oil fell over $3 in November, coming down from $47.32 to $44.03, with the six-year low of $40.40 being seen on 16 November. Unfortunately, the pound lost a little ground to the dollar – with a pound worth $1.54 at the start of the month and $1.51 at the end – undoing some of the positive effect of the lower oil price as oil is traded in dollars.

RAC Fuel Watch spokesman Simon Williams said: “The lower forecourt prices we’re enjoying at the moment are a product of the fall in world crude oil prices, which began in September 2014. After a six-year low of $45 a barrel in early February and two instances of going back up to the $60 level twice briefly since, the price has been consistently below $50 since mid-October, reaching a new six-year low in mid-November.

“As it stands we anticipate a very slight average petrol price reduction in the next two weeks and another 2p a litre coming off diesel, taking the new six-year average low price even lower.”

HMRC oil duty statistics for October show combined sales of petrol and diesel were 1.9% up on September at 3.905bn litres and up 1.8% on the previous October. Petrol sales (1.461bn litres) were static on September whereas October saw the fifth highest number of litres sold in any month since 1990 with 2.444bn. This was 2.9% up on the month before and 3.7% up on October 2014.

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Natalie Middleton

Natalie has worked as a fleet journalist for over 20 years, previously as assistant editor on the former Company Car magazine before joining Fleet World in 2006. Prior to this, she worked on a range of B2B titles, including Insurance Age and Insurance Day.