UK fuel prices fall as Iran war fears ease

British diesel prices have come down sharply from their spring peak, but the relief reached drivers only after weeks of wholesale turmoil and is still leaving fuel bills well above pre-conflict levels. The RAC said average diesel fell to 176.77p a litre by mid to late June, down 14.77p from a high of 191.54p on 15 April, cutting about £18.91 from the cost of filling a 55-litre family car compared with 28 February.

That lag matters because diesel is the fuel that moves goods as well as cars. When diesel rises, the extra cost works its way through haulage, distribution and store shelves before it shows up at the pump, and the latest numbers show how slowly the market has been unwinding the shock from the Iran conflict. The RAC said the war began on 28 February, when average UK fuel prices were still around 132p a litre for petrol and 141p for diesel, based on oil at about $70 a barrel.

Petrol has eased too, but less dramatically. The RAC said the average price peaked at 159.53p a litre on 28 May and slipped to 155.89p by mid-June. Simon Williams, the RAC’s head of policy, said the conflict’s price surge had already altered driver behaviour, with three in 10 UK motorists saying they were now more likely to consider an electric vehicle next time because of the higher fuel costs.

Policy has moved alongside the market. The U.K. government delayed its planned September 2026 fuel duty increase until the end of the year as drivers faced higher pump prices, extending the period in which lower wholesale costs have to compete with tax and retail margins before any full relief reaches households and businesses.

The same pattern is visible in the United States, where the Energy Information Administration said second-quarter 2026 wholesale product prices were pushed up by supply concerns linked to the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, with diesel and jet fuel especially exposed. Its monthly U.S. Diesel Sales Price series put June 2026 at $5.024 a gallon, while the weekly diesel update showed $4.83 a gallon for the week ending 22 June. The Federal Reserve Economic Data series for U.S. diesel sales prices goes back to April 1994, giving a long run of history against which to judge the speed and scale of the latest move.