Two days after diesel hit £2, prices are still going up.
On Friday the UK average diesel price reached £2 a litre, and the G7 agreed to release emergency diesel stocks. We compared every forecourt's price on Friday afternoon with this morning. For every forecourt that cut diesel, more than five put it up.
Published 4 October 2026 · Fuel Finder UK team
Where prices are this morning
At 11:23am on Sunday 4 October 2026 the UK average is 200.1p a litre for diesel and 174.9p for petrol. On Friday afternoon it was 200.0p and 174.8p.
2,939 forecourts now charge £2 or more for diesel, up from 2,901. That is 35% of them. And 2,614 are at exactly 199.9p, up from 2,520.
So the average has barely moved. Underneath it, a lot of forecourts have.
Five rises for every cut
- Put diesel up860 · 10%
- Cut diesel158 · 2%
- No change7,395 · 88%
Source: Fuel Finder UK analysis of official CMA fuel price data.
Most forecourts did nothing over the weekend. Of the 1,018 that did change their diesel price, 860 went up and 158 came down.
The rises were small. 632 of them were exactly 1p a litre and 171 were 2p. Petrol did the same thing: 1,035 forecourts put it up and 193 cut it.
The supermarkets did most of the moving
The four big supermarkets are 23% of the forecourts in the data. They account for 550 of the 860 diesel rises, which is 64%.
See the numbers
| Brand | Forecourts | Raised | Cut | Average Fri | Average Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tesco | 513 | 278 | 4 | 196.9p | 197.6p |
| Sainsbury's | 315 | 62 | 1 | 197.6p | 197.8p |
| Asda | 789 | 147 | 34 | 199.1p | 199.3p |
| Morrisons | 341 | 63 | 4 | 198.7p | 198.9p |
| Shell | 912 | 141 | 22 | 200.9p | 201.2p |
| Texaco | 497 | 27 | 18 | 199.2p | 199.2p |
| Jet | 317 | 14 | 5 | 199.4p | 199.4p |
| BP | 1,088 | 40 | 32 | 202.3p | 202.3p |
| Murco | 166 | 6 | 2 | 199.3p | 199.4p |
| Independents and smaller brands | 1,718 | 48 | 17 | 199.4p | 199.4p |
| Gulf | 294 | 8 | 3 | 201.0p | 201.0p |
| Esso | 1,450 | 26 | 16 | 201.2p | 201.2p |
Source: Fuel Finder UK analysis of official CMA fuel price data. Brands with 150 or more forecourts.
- Tesco moved the most. 278 of its 513 forecourts raised diesel, mostly by 1p. Its average went from 196.9p to 197.6p.
- It is climbing to the line and stopping. Tesco forecourts at exactly 199.9p went from 170 to 244. None is above it. The same is true at Sainsbury's and Morrisons: nothing over 199.9p.
- Shell pushed more sites over £2. Shell forecourts at £2 or more went from 391 to 432.
- BP and Esso hardly moved. They were already the dearest. BP raised diesel at 40 forecourts and cut it at 32.
Tesco is still the cheapest big brand for diesel. The gap between the Tesco and BP averages is now 4.7p a litre. On Friday it was 5.4p. See today's prices by brand.
The 199.9p line is holding
On Friday we found that three in ten forecourts were charging exactly 199.9p for diesel, a tenth of a penny under £2. Read how many forecourts are over £2.
Of the 2,520 forecourts at 199.9p on Friday, 2,416 are still there. That is 96%. Only 78 have gone over, and 26 have come down. Across all forecourts, 79 crossed above £2 and 43 came back under it.
What about the G7 diesel release?
On Friday the G7 agreed to release 100 million barrels of emergency oil over four months, with a large release of diesel in the first 20 days. Wholesale diesel prices fell that day. Read what the release means at the pump, with the sources.
None of that shows at the pump yet, and it was not expected to. One analyst quoted in that post put the delay at one to two weeks. What the weekend does show is the direction prices were heading before any of it arrives: up, a penny at a time. We will look again once the first 20 days are up.
When the changes happened
Most of them came on Friday. 569 forecourts made their latest diesel change after 2:51pm on Friday: 484 up and 85 down. Saturday saw 331: 273 up and 58 down. Sunday morning added 116.
That fits what the data showed last week. Friday is one of the busiest days for price changes, and the weekend is quiet. Read which days forecourts change their prices.
What it means when you fill up
- The cheap end is moving up. 748 of the 860 rises were at forecourts charging under £2 on Friday. 2,714 forecourts are still under 199p for diesel, down from 2,873.
- Supermarkets are still the place to start. Three of the big four have nothing over 199.9p.
- Check on the day. One forecourt in eight changed its diesel price in under two days.
- If a pump is empty or the queue is long, say so. Read how to report it in the app.
- See who has not gone up. Every station near you, cheapest first, on a list or a map.
- Hear when it drops. On iPhone and iPad, Price Drop Alerts tell you when a favourite station cuts its price.
- Check the supermarkets first. Filter by brand in one tap.
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How we counted
We took the official CMA fuel price data at 2:51pm on Friday 2 October and again at 11:23am on Sunday 4 October 2026, and compared the two, forecourt by forecourt. 8,413 forecourts had a standard diesel (B7) price between 100p and 300p in both.
A rise is a forecourt whose price in the second set is higher than in the first. A forecourt that went up and came back down in between counts as no change. The timing of each change comes from the time the retailer last updated the price, counted only where the price is different.
The limits: this is two moments, less than two days apart, and the second was on a Sunday morning. Prices are still moving. The UK average page is updated daily.