Petrol prices are continuing to rise toward the €1.30 a litre mark for unleaded fuel, although there are signs that the rate of increase is slowing.
A number of garages contacted by The Irish Times yesterday said they planned to put up prices further over the next two days, in line with increases in the price of their wholesale product.
But with oil prices falling back on international markets, there were indications that the worst of the price rises may be over.
Maxol, which increased the wholesale price of a litre of unleaded by over 10 cent last Friday, yesterday responded to the greater stability of the market by reducing it by over five cent.
Meanwhile, Statoil, which had brought forward its normal mid-week price review meeting to yesterday, opted to defer a decision on a price change until Wednesday.
Filling stations nationwide reported heavy demand and even queues over the weekend, as customers tanked up in advance of price increases. Some suppliers said their stocks were running low.
"There's been a run on the product since last week, partly due to news coverage of Hurricane Katrina," said one industry source. "However, there's plenty of oil; it's just dearer." He described the market as "coming off the boil".
One provincial Shell retailer said he would be increasing prices today; however, Shell Ireland refused to say whether this was the result of wholesale price increases. Managing director Frank Bergin would only say the company "reviews the position regularly in view of a number of factors and in line with international markets".
Maxol and Statoil publish a wholesale price list on their websites, but most other distributors do not. Another retailer said his stocks were very low because customers were buying more petrol than usual.
"It's not mass hysteria, just an awareness that a price increase was imminent," he said.
Oil industry sources say the US hurricane is unlikely to have any lasting effect on Irish petrol supplies. "We don't see any issue about supply in all this, as all our product comes from Europe," one distributor said.
However, he acknowledged that the hurricane, as well as instability in Iraq, were factors affecting the price of oil.
On international markets, oil prices fell sharply again yesterday. The drop in prices started on Friday after the release by industrialised nations of emergency oil stocks to prevent a fuel crisis in the US.
By yesterday evening, London Brent crude was down $1.20 at $64.86 a barrel, back to levels seen before Katrina disrupted US Gulf oil production and refining operations.
"Literally and figuratively, I think we've weathered the storm, as the release of strategic reserves has calmed the market," said David Thurtell, commodity strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
On Friday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced that its 26 industrialised member countries would release two million barrels per day of oil for 30 days to compensate for the loss of US crude and refining output.
