Fuel prices are expected to rise “visibly” in the next 10 days, petrol station owners’ association chairman Savvas Prokopiou said on Monday, with a widening conflict now engulfing the region.

He told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) that the wholesale price paid by petrol station owners has risen by between 10 and 12 per cent since Friday, and that as such, “we certainly expect increases” in the retail price.

However, he said, the increase in retail prices is not expected to be as sharp or as stark as that experienced when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

“The lack of a sharp increase in the price of a barrel globally, we hope, is an indication that we will not have what we had four years ago,” he said.

Meanwhile, fuel company Petrolina’s executive managing director Dinos Lefkaritis moved to offer reassurances that Cyprus will not run out of fuel.

He told CNA that at present, the island has a reserve of around 15 days’ worth of fuel, which is considered “satisfactory”.

“We are covered. We do not have a specific problem,” he said, before adding that until Sunday, his company was loading fuel from Israel.

“Today, we will see things. We may have to stop, depending on what the refinery in Haifa tells us,” he said.

He added that Petrolina has “alternative” sources from which it can procure fuels, including from Greece, Malta, and Italy, and that as such, the island will not run out of fuel.

“There is no concern about running out of fuel. At the moment, we have secured stocks that we can hold for up to 15 days,” he said.

Asked about the matter of prices, he said the issue is “unpredictable”.

“We are waiting to see. Anything can happen, and it could go down, it could not. No one can predict it,” he said.