Motorists hoping for a reprieve as we head into Christmas shopping season, have been dealt a blow with news that the price of motoring looks set to break through the 120p a litre mark in some parts of London.
The global price of crude oil has once again shattered the $80 a barrel mark and, according to the petrolprices.com website, some motorists are paying as much as 119.9p a litre for diesel, with a litre of unleaded costing as much as 117.9p a litre at some forecourts.
The situation would perhaps be much worse were it not for a supermarket price war – the battle between supermarkets to attract drivers is bringing the national averages down to 108.8p and 107.5p a litre respectively, although both are at highs for 2009.
The benchmark Nymex barrel hit $80.08 on Thursday this week and traders believe that crude is bouncing again after strong GDP figures were released by the US, which is the thirstiest gas guzzling economy in the world.
