SERVICE stations in Aberdeen were charging 102.9p per litre for petrol and 103.9p for diesel at the end of last week, while in Inverness fuel was being sold at 105.9p for both types.
Meanwhile, the UK average was 106.2p for petrol and 107p for diesel.
Aberdeen and Inverness are currently experiencing prices far lower than some areas of the country, where motorists have to fork out 117.9p per litre for petrol and 119.9p for diesel.
As I noted in this column last month, the UK Government is still the winner at current pricing levels.
The core components of fuel prices are: the price of oil; taxation in the form of fuel duty and VAT; and refining and service station costs.
At the beginning of September the fuel duty rise of 2p per litre came into effect, raising the overall fuel duty level to 56.19p per litre for both petrol and diesel. With the addition of VAT at 15% this equates to 69.6p per litre, or 68% in tax – 1% higher than last month.
In the oil markets, the average price of Brent crude for the four weeks to mid-September was $70.15 per barrel, which equates to 26.9p per litre.
Although the oil price is lower than last month, the impact on the price per litre is minimal at under 0.65p.
Taking into account the taxes and the cost of the raw oil alone, this represents 96.5p of the total cost. Since our last column, the margin of the refinery for making the product and the retailer at the petrol station to provide it has increased from 6p for both petrol and diesel last month, to 6.39p for petrol and 7.26p for diesel – increases of 6% and 21% respectively.
It must be noted that there are influences in the market not necessarily reflected in our calculations.
Refineries will have purchased their oil in previous weeks at a different price range, in addition to the amount of petrol and diesel being produced by the European refineries (relative to other fuels such as heating oil and aviation fuel) which impacts supply, and thus the final price for the products.
Andrew Reid is Aberdeen-based managing director of energy consultant Douglas-Westwood.