The latest increase has seen the price of unleaded rise by just over three pence since the start of the year addding £1.50 to the cost of filling a family car. This time last year, unleaded was seven pence a litre cheaper and filling up £3.50 less. The owner of an average family car with a 50-litre tank is now paying £68.72 to fill up; owners of some larger “Chelsea Tractors” will have to find more than £100.

Motorists are likely to face even higher prices within weeks the industry warned, with unleaded bursting past the 142 pence a litre barrier and diesel up to nearly 150 pence. With the Chancellor set to increase fuel duty in August by around three pence, drivers could be having to find at least another £4 to fill up the tank of a family car by the end of the summer.

Brian Madderson, the head of RMI petrol, representing 6,000 independent forecourts predicted a miserable summer for motorists. “I can see diesel approaching 150 pence a litre by Easter and unleaded costing around 142 pence.” He said a combination of political instability and the ongoing uncertainty about the future of the Coryton refinery in Essex spelt bad news for the country’s drivers.

“There is no end in sight to the dispute with Iran and that is being passed on to the market and the EU embargo is supposed to come into force in the summer.

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