Irish petrol and diesel in 2022The all-time record and an emergency excise cut.

Over the course of 2022 petrol cost €1.851 a litre on average at Irish pumps and diesel €1.893, on the Commission's weekly readings. Petrol ended the year 10.8 cent lower than it began. Taking 2021 as the base, the petrol average shifted +33.6 cent and diesel +47.9 cent.

On 13 Jun petrol reached the year's top price of €2.169; on 26 Dec it recorded the lowest, €1.569. The gap between the fuels, on yearly averages, left diesel 4.2 cent a litre dearer than petrol. The tax take on petrol averaged 47.3% of the pump price through the year, close to 87.5 cent a litre. Marked gas oil averaged €1.224 a litre in 2022, between a low of €0.822 and a high of €1.643.

Petrol was at its monthly cheapest in December, €1.635 on average, and at its monthly dearest in June, €2.139.

In weekly terms the year held 17 increases and 28 decreases for petrol, plus 6 standstills.

In EU terms, the 2022 petrol average was €1.804 and Ireland's was 4.6 cent higher against it.

On the duty side, 2022 brought three times: 10 Mar: petrol to €474.11, diesel to €413.51 per thousand litres; with effect from 1 Apr, €465.98 a kilolitre of petrol and €405.38 of diesel; a new schedule on 12 Oct set petrol at €483.34 and diesel at €425.45 per 1,000 litres.

On 10 March 2022 the Government cut excise by 20 cent on petrol and 15 cent on diesel, VAT included, as wholesale prices surged; the weekly average for petrol set the record that still stands on 13 Jun 2022. On 12 October the carbon tax rose to €48.50 a tonne.

On the CSO's monthly series, petrol moved from €1.702 at the start of the year to €1.593 by December.

The archive pages for fuel prices in 2021 and what a litre cost in 2023 carry the same tables.

All years side by side: the long-run price record.