The brief dip in the price of petrol at the pumps appears to be over, according to latest figures from the AA.

Mid-June prices of petrol and diesel are a little lower than they were in mid-May but have edged up in the last few days, the motoring organisation said.

The average cost of petrol is now 136.07p a litre - down 0.86p on the mid-May average but higher than the 135.75p-a-litre figure on June 5. Diesel now averages 139.77p a litre - down 1.72p on the mid-May figure but fractionally above the low-point of 139.34p on June 5.

The AA said it believed that, despite the fall in prices since early May, petrol drivers have been denied much of the saving that the crash in oil price, from 126 US dollars a barrel to below 110 US dollars could have allowed. This has short-changed drivers by around 2p a litre or £1 a tank.

Currently, the most-expensive petrol is to be found in Northern Ireland (where the average is 137.4p a litre) while Scotland has the dearest diesel (140.5p). Yorkshire and Humberside currently has the cheapest petrol (135.4p a litre) and also the least expensive diesel (138.9p).