Rising oil costs push up fuel prices at Walsall petrol stations

Bosses at the filling stations that are supplied by wholesaler Harvest Energy say the rise in the cost of oil is the sole reason for their decision.

When Ablewell service station in the town centre slashed the cost of a litre of unleaded down to just 96.4p last month trade went up by 40 per cent as a result.

The garage, in Ablewell Street, became one of the first in the West Midlands to sell a litre of unleaded below £1 for the first time in eight years, attracting queues of motorists.

The move was soon followed by owners of the Cornwall Garage, in Wednesbury Road, Palfrey who have now also increased prices after a rise in the cost of Brent Crude, the oil markets trading standard.

This week both premises, run by separate operators, are selling at 106.9p for unleaded and 112.9p for diesel.

Ablewell's owner Velautham Sarveswaran said: "The wholesale price of oil is going up now. When we initially dropped our forecourt prices Brent Crude was at $46 a barrel, which allowed us to sell unleaded at 99.7p, but last Friday Brent reached $62 and on Monday it was at $58.

"So it's going up at the moment and we have to make a living and meet out overheads as well. We are still one of the cheapest filling stations even though the supermarkets try to compete with us. Obviously, if the price of Brent Crude goes down we will certainly cut our prices once more."

Mr Sarveswaran and his wife Ananthi re-opened the town centre garage last August after it had been closed for about two years.

The former civil engineer, who worked on the M5 and M6 motorways, switched careers in order to run petrol stations. The Walsall site is his fifth, after establishing fuel stops in Swindon, Boston, Redditch and Birmingham.

Cornwall Garage owner Khalid Khan said: "We managed to keep the price at 99.7p for a couple of weeks, but the buying price has gone up really high so we've had to raise our prices too."