Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the price of petrol and diesel in County Durham.

The Government publishes weekly national average pump prices for both petrol and diesel online at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/weekly-road-fuel-prices. The Government does not collect data at a local level.

The difference in retail prices largely reflects a difference in traded wholesale prices for the two fuels. The wholesale cost of diesel is often higher than for petrol. This is because UK and European refineries were historically set up at a time when petrol was the dominant fuel in demand. Consequently, the UK is a net importer of diesel but a net exporter of petrol.

The Government analysis shows that petrol and diesel prices are mainly driven by the price of crude oil (priced in US$) and exchange rates. These are also influenced by a range of factors, which can create small price differences in the short term. This includes balance of demand and supply for individual fuels, levels of oil stocks, changes to the costs of biofuels, and distribution and retail costs.