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Petrol prices since 2018: 456 weeks charted, and the rocket-and-feather claim tested
456 weeks of official pump prices, from January 2018 to 2026-09-21. Petrol peaked at 191.6p in the week of 2022-07-04, was cheapest at 104.9p in 2020-05-25, and stands 51.8p higher than where the series begins. We also tested the oldest complaint about fuel pricing, that prices rise faster than they fall. On this series they do not, or not by enough to mean anything: 1.11 to 1.
Rocket and feather: tested, and not found
The complaint is old and rarely tested. Pump prices, the story goes, shoot up when oil rises and then drift down slowly when it falls. On 455 weekly movements since 2018, petrol rose in 245 weeks and fell in 207. The average rise was 0.9p a week and the average fall 0.8p, which is 1.11 to 1.
We expected to report that as a finding. It is not one. Prices rose in more weeks than they fell, 245 against 207, and the series ends 51.8p higher than it starts. A slightly larger average step upwards, on a series that spends the whole period moving upwards, is what the arithmetic produces by itself. The number describes the trend, not anybody's conduct, and a gap of 11% is not the rocket and the feather people have in mind.
| Weekly movements since 2018 | Weeks | Share | Average move |
|---|---|---|---|
| Petrol rose | 245 | 54% | +0.9p |
| Petrol fell | 207 | 45% | -0.8p |
| No change | 3 | 1% |
A real test needs something we do not hold. You would set each week's pump price against the wholesale cost behind it and ask whether a fall reaches the pump as fast as a rise does. We have pump prices only. The Competition and Markets Authority has done that work with the cost data, and its road fuel market study is where to look for a finding about conduct. What we can offer is the price series, and the honest observation that on its own it does not show the effect.
Year by year
| Year | Petrol average | Cheapest week | Dearest week | Diesel average | Duty | A 55-litre tank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 125.0p | 119.1p | 131.0p | 130.0p | 57.95p | £68.77 |
| 2019 | 125.0p | 119.0p | 129.4p | 131.7p | 57.95p | £68.73 |
| 2020 | 114.1p | 104.9p | 127.3p | 119.5p | 57.95p | £62.75 |
| 2021 | 131.4p | 115.4p | 147.5p | 135.0p | 57.95p | £72.27 |
| 2022 | 164.6p | 144.8p | 191.6p | 177.8p | 54.10p | £90.55 |
| 2023 | 147.7p | 140.3p | 156.0p | 158.1p | 52.95p | £81.21 |
| 2024 | 141.5p | 133.6p | 149.5p | 148.4p | 52.95p | £77.81 |
| 2025 | 135.0p | 131.3p | 139.6p | 142.7p | 52.95p | £74.28 |
| 2026part year | 150.4p | 131.5p | 172.0p | 170.3p | 52.95p | £82.71 |
The tax share has moved too
Because the series carries the duty and VAT rate in force each week, the tax share of a litre can be computed for any week rather than only for today. It is 47% now. It was highest at 72% in the week of 2020-05-25, when petrol was 104.9p, and lowest at 44% in 2022-07-04, when petrol was 191.6p. The tax share falls when the fuel itself gets dearer, because duty is a fixed number of pence rather than a percentage. Our breakdown of a litre shows today's split in full, and the duty guide covers the rise already on the statute book.
Diesel set its own record
Diesel peaked at 199.2p in the week of 2022-07-04, against petrol's 191.6p in 2022-07-04. It stands at 195.5p now, a premium of 23.5p over petrol, and the gap between the two pumps is measured across every forecourt selling both.
This page checks our own figures. The series above is a national weekly average from Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Our own mean across every forecourt reporting unleaded today is 173.9p, against 172.0p for the week commencing 2026-09-21, a difference of +1.8p. The two are measured differently, from different samples, so they will never match exactly. If they ever diverge far, something has broken on our side and we would rather you could see it.
How this is measured
The weekly series is the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero's published average UK pump price for ultra low sulphur unleaded and diesel, released every Tuesday, covering 456 weeks from 2018-01-01 to 2026-09-21. It is used here unaltered, under the Open Government Licence. Weekly movements are simple week-on-week differences; weeks with no change are counted in neither direction. The tank figures use 55 litres throughout.
Sources: the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero weekly road fuel prices series for everything before this week, and the government Fuel Finder scheme for today's forecourt-level prices. Both are used under the Open Government Licence. Figures recalculated on every build.