AA: Fuel prices to rise

Motorists will feel the pinch at the pumps next month with petrol and diesel prices expected to rise, it was warned today.

AA Ireland said the current state of the international oil market would cause the price of petrol and diesel to rise by two or three cent a litre at the pumps.

“Prices have been stable for a couple of months but they are expected to rise next month, not by much,” Conor Faughnan of AA Ireland said.

“There is no indication it will be anything like the rises in the third quarter of last year.”

Mr Faughnan said drivers were currently paying an average of 105 cent per litre for petrol.

The price of a barrel of crude oil hit a three-and-a-half month high of US$66.31 today, still short of the all time high of US$70 a barrel which they reached last September.

Crude oil prices have been rising with a series of attacks by militants on oil platforms in Nigeria, which is a major exporter of crude oil.

Mr Faughnan said demand for oil has been increasing with the fast developing economies of India as well as China, which consumes more oil each day than the UK, France, Germany and Italy combined.

He said the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf coast in the US had also resulted in a shortage of refining capacity.

“The price of crude oil has gone up and will continue to,” he said.

“There doesn’t seem to be any real prospect of a decrease any time soon.”