Brits face fuel and energy price woes as gas surges by 25% and oil hits $114 a barrel
Prices have hit a three-year high as Brits face forking out more for fuel amid the Middle East conflict.
UK gas prices have skyrocketed following a devastating wave of attacks on critical energy infrastructure in the Middle East.
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Oil prices have also spiked as strikes on energy facilities in the region stepped up, heightening fears about major disruption to global supplies.
UK gas prices are currently up by 23 per cent to 171p per therm (a unit of heat energy). This marks a three-year high as Brits face forking out more for fuel amid the conflict. The previous wartime record was 164p.
Prices have sat between between 125 and 132p per therm over the last few days before rising to around 140p on Wednesday as trading closed.
As trading opened on Thursday, prices surged to 174p following overnight strikes in a 24 per cent rise. However, prices quickly tailed back slightly to 169 as of 8am GMT.
Meanwhile, the price of Brent crude oil was rising by about 7 per cent to cross 114 US dollars a barrel on Thursday morning.
This means it was closing in on the highest level since the conflict escalated at the end of February. It comes after Qatar's main gas facility was struck overnight.
Qatar said on Thursday that Iranian missile attacks had hit its liquified natural gas field Ras Laffan, "causing sizeable fires and extensive further damage".
It followed reports that Israel launched an attack against Iran's South Pars gas field.
Speaking on Wednesday, US president Donald Trump said Israel was behind the attack on "the world's largest gas field".
He said he "knew nothing" of Israel's strike and that he did not want to authorise "this level of violence and destruction".
It signalled a notable split for the first time in US and Israeli military aims.
However, Trump was quick to justify Netanyahu's actions, noting Israel had "violently lashed out" and that the decision had been taken "out of anger".
He also pledged to "massively blow up the entirety" of Iran's South Pars gas field if the nation attacks Qatar's facilities again.
Qatar's state-backed energy company Qatar Energy had halted production of liquefied natural gas at its sites at the beginning of the month because of attacks on its facilities.
The ongoing conflict in the Middle East - and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has raised fears that oil prices could surge towards $200-a-barrel.
It comes as British military planners have reportedly been dispatched to the US in a bid to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, after Donald Trump bemoaned a lack of support from Sir Keir Starmer.
UK military planners have been dispatched to US Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida to help plot a route to unblocking the key shipping lane, according to The Times.
The experts are said to be helping to develop a strategy to help tankers navigate through the chokepoint, which is feared to contain mines.