6th October 2026
Diesel has passed £2 a litre in Britain for the first time. In February it was £1.41. But this isn't an oil shortage — crude is back near $102 and Gulf exports have recovered to close to pre-war levels.
So why are world leaders holding emergency meetings about diesel? And why is Britain more exposed than almost anywhere else in Europe?
Measured against what it imports, the UK holds around 40 days of diesel stocks. Germany holds 415. In 1998 British refineries produced 119% of the diesel this country used. Today it's about two thirds.
This video looks at why the diesel crack has hit $113 a barrel while crude went nowhere, how Britain lost its refining capacity, why a quarter of the UK's "strategic reserve" isn't physically in Britain, and whether any of this means we actually run out.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Britain has 40 days of diesel
01:28 Why the price won't come down
03:32 Diesel as a geopolitical weapon
04:50 Why did Britain become fragile?
06:42 The 40 days
07:20 Why it matters now
08:23 Parallels with natural gas
09:03 So how worried should we be?