Oil prices breached $100/barrel earlier this week on the news that war had broken out in Ukraine. David Blevings, spokesperson for the IPRA said,” Prices were already inflated, driven by strong demand from unprecedented economic growth and a lack lustre approach to increasing stocks from OPEC members. World oil stocks are at a seven-year low, and the breakout of War in Ukraine adds a huge unknown into the market.

Any sort of predictions on future pricing are currently unreliable as there are too many factors at play. The market has retreated slightly today (Friday) after spiking higher mid-week on the news that war had broken out and we are likely to see some further spikes depending on what happens on the war front.

Unfortunately, these increases in global pricing will translate into increased wholesale and retail fuel costs. The retailer has no option to pass on these costs to consumers as they are all independent businesses who must make a profit to survive and pay overheads, including staff wages.

We have today asked Government to reduce fuel duty by 10cpl for a period of six months to help consumers already dealing with recent increases in food and energy costs. On a positive note, with these inflated global oil prices we would expect to see the US, China and Japan releasing some of their strategic oil reserves to supplement any reduced supply and hopefully, that could soften the blow of increasing costs”