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Hurricane Harvey may hit the price of petrol, RAC warns

Cherry Reynard
Written By:
Cherry Reynard
Posted:
Updated:
01/09/2017

The RAC has warned that motorists might see prices rise for unleaded petrol as a result of the disruption caused by Hurricane Harvey.

The group said a litre of petrol could rise by up to 4p, to an average of 121p. Diesel, super unleaded and LPG are unlikely to see a change, remaining at an average of 118p, 127p and 58p respectively. Unleaded petrol has not been this high since December 2014.

Hurricane Harvey has put a quarter of America’s oil refining capacity out of action, while crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has fallen. Brent Crude has risen around 18% since June of this year. Higher US demand for petrol imports has also pushed up prices.

RAC spokesman Pete Williams said this will be the first time unleaded has been higher than diesel since June 2016 and he expected this to be the case for some time to come, depending on when US production comes back on stream.

There are ways to minimise your fuel costs – check out websites such as PetrolPrices.com or Whatgas.com to compare fuel prices in your area. You can also switch off air conditioning and get rid of any excess weight (such as unused roof boxes). This will lower your petrol usage. The AA has a wealth of tips here to keep your petrol consumption low.


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