While diesel is currently selling at up to 194.5p a litre on at least one site, unleaded has reached 178p.
Prices are partly tied to the cost of oil, which hit just over $104 per barrel on 15 September. Although that is not its highest this year – in March it was $111.4 – the timing of deliveries to the island has meant the fuel has been more expensive.
As of this week, Le Mont Saint is selling diesel for 193.9p a litre and unleaded for 179.9p, with the former being about 4p a litre higher than anywhere else at one point.
Joint managing director Peter Beausire said this was due to the garage recently refilling its diesel supply.
‘We don’t fill up the diesel tank very often. It’s roughly every two-and-a-half weeks. This is the highest I’ve ever seen it,' he said.
But as other garages start to take fresh deliveries, he said they would have to put their prices up too.
‘If diesel goes up 5p a litre in the next two weeks our price will remain steady and the others will overtake us.’
Bearing out his comments was the fact that a garage that was one of the cheapest in the island up until yesterday actually started charging more than Le Mont Saint.
‘We just had a shipment in and the prices go on the shipment and what they [suppliers Guernsey Petroleum Distributors] pay,’ said WhiteWay Motors owner Andre Whiteway.
The garage went from charging 186p a litre for diesel to 194.5p, while their previous price for unleaded, which was the lowest in the island at 172.9p, is now 178p.
Mr Whiteway echoed Mr Beausire by saying it was the highest he had ever seen it.
‘When I look back at some of the old photos it’s crazy to see the price it was,’ he said.
He also thought that if the Middle East situation did not improve, diesel would hit 200p a litre soon.
‘Mr Trump has a lot to answer for. It’s crazy.
‘I was against electric vehicles, but I can see why people get them.’
He wondered what the States was going to do in the next Budget, with the last one setting duty on fuel at 90.5p a litre.
The 2026 tax reform package includes reducing fuel duty and bringing back motor tax, which would include taxing electric vehicles, which Mr Whiteway said was long overdue.
The average price of fuel per litre in the UK on 15 September was 169.7p for unleaded and 191.9p for diesel, according to RAC Fuel Watch and PetrolPal.
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