Fuel prices soar after Hurricane Katrina (From Penarth Times)

Fuel prices soar after Hurricane Katrina

PENARTH found itself at the sharp end of spiralling fuel costs this week as prices on the forecourt soared above 1 a litre in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Monty Smith, an independent company on Windsor Road, was charging 1.03 for a litre of unleaded petrol.

This is the first time ever that petrol prices in Wales have risen above 1 a litre.

Owner Andrew Smith said the sharp rise in wholesale costs had put the future of his Penarth garage in doubt.

Mr Smith said: "Because we buy our petrol on the spot market, as most people do now, as soon as it goes up we're the first to be affected. The supermarkets can take up to 12 days to have the same effect as we do.

"We are still selling a fair bit, but not as much as we were hoping to. But unfortunately, we're paying over a pound a litre for it ourselves, so it had to go up. We paid 32,000 for a tanker full of fuel on Friday.

"We will make less than 1,000 on it. That is not a good return.

"As an independent retailer we cannot compete at this moment in time against supermarket chains.

"If this continues we will have to reconsider the future of the site in Penarth which is a shame because we offer a good service 24 hours-a-day, 365 days-a-year."

The average price of normal unleaded petrol in Britain went up by more than two pence this week to 94.6 pence per litre.

The rise came after oil refineries in the US were knocked out by Hurricane Katrina.