Britons face over pound a litre petrol for first time

LONDON (Reuters) - Drivers are forking out over a pound for a litre of petrol or diesel for the first time, the Automobile Association said on Friday.

Prices may rise even further due to expensive crude oil and reduced supplies from a refinery in southeast England which suffered a fire in late October, the AA said.

Britain's average gasoline price was 101.51 pence per litre as of November 14.

The average diesel price was 105.44 pence per litre.

Petrol was 97.7 pence in mid-October and diesel 99.8 pence.

"Retailers, who may have previously shied away from charging above the psychological 1-pound barrier, have seen neighbouring competitors do so, followed suit, and the genie is now out of the bottle for good," the AA's Paul Watters said in a statement.

The Coryton oil refinery in Essex, run by Swiss-based refiner Petroplus, has been running at about half of its capacity since a fire in late October.

The company said it would take up to a month to bring the plant back to full operational rates.

That was one of the local factors that added to the pressure of crude oil at over $90 a barrel, said Watters, head of AA public affairs.

"There have been more immediate and localised pressures on the price of UK fuel, such as refinery maintenance problems on mainland Europe, the Coryton fire and the ongoing switch to diesel with 10 parts-per-million sulphur content," he said.

Heavy European refinery maintenance shutdowns in October, subsequent restart delays and the Coryton fire have kept fuel stocks lower than normal.

Distillate stocks, which include diesel and heating oil, have been especially low because Britain is switching to 10ppm sulphur diesel in December from 50ppm now and the European Union is shifting to 0.1 percent sulphur in January 2008 from 0.2 percent now.

That has boosted wholesale price premiums for diesel premiums to record highs.

London's Brent crude oil futures was trading at $90.86 a barrel by 12:57 p.m. They struck an all-time high above $95 last week.

(Reporting by Ikuko Kao, editing by William Hardy)