The government has sought to avert panic at the pumps, insisting that the UK is not facing a diesel shortage after Donald Trump threatened to cut off US supplies of the fuel.
The transport minister Keir Mather said on Friday that the UK has a wide range of sources of the fuel and is in talks with other European countries over the potential release of emergency diesel stockpiles.
Minister reassures motorists
“I want to reassure people that they can still go to the pump and fill up with diesel because the supply we have to the UK is inherently resilient,” he said on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. “The flows of diesel into the UK come from a variety of sources, and that is resilient.
“The government’s obligation now is to work really closely with our partners [in Europe] and officials in the US administration to re-stress how important it is to have flows of diesel into the UK. People shouldn’t be concerned about shortages because of the inherent resilience that is built into that system.”
The UK relies on the US for about 30% of its diesel, with the vast majority coming from mainland Europe, and has reserve supplies for 42 days.
Refinery shutdown and record prices
Earlier this week it emerged that the UK’s biggest refinery, Fawley in Hampshire, is set to shut for up to 10 weeks for planned maintenance. The UK had 18 refineries in the 1980s but now has only four.
On Thursday the UK opened talks with European allies over releasing emergency diesel supplies, after the Trump administration told Germany and France to release their stockpiles to help ease soaring prices or face a US supply ban.
The average price of a litre of diesel in the UK hit a record high on Friday, breaking the £2 mark for the first time, according to the motoring body the RAC.
Government support measures
“This is a pump price threshold that no one wanted to cross,” said Simon Williams, the head of policy at the RAC. “The average price of a litre of diesel has risen to a record 200.01p and is showing no signs of slowing, heaping more misery on to motorists.”
The government has extended the 5p cut in fuel duty until the end of the year. Earlier this week the RAC called on the government to extend the freeze into spring.
“We need to give people support where we can,” Mather said on GMB. “The government is not powerless. That is why we have a fuel duty freeze in place at the moment. The chancellor will set out the future of that at the budget, but is very aware of the impact that [high prices] are having on people.”
On Friday, Dan Jørgensen, the EU commissioner for energy, said Europe was discussing the question of whether to release emergency reserves of diesel with all members of the International Energy Agency, not only the US.
“This is one of the opportunities that we have; we have used it before, and it is likely that we would use it again,” he told Euronews.
