PUMP prices have headed north again. Yesterday, prices of petrol and diesel at Shell, Caltex and Esso stations rose by four cents a litre to touch new highs.

Before discount, the 92-octane grade is now at $2.013 a litre, 95 at $2.046 and 98 at $2.12. Shell's V-Power is $2.249 a litre, while Caltex's equivalent Platinum with Techron is $2.286.

Diesel is now $1.563 a litre.

The latest round of increases was the seventh consecutive hike since July last year. The previous adjustment was in November.

The latest rise came swiftly on the back of higher oil prices. Crude oil crossed the US$100 a barrel mark again last week, although from November, prices had fallen to below US$90 before heading north again.

Because of the high pump prices, vehicle users are either driving less or adopting better economy habits - if fuel sales are anything to go by.

According to figures collated by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the volume of petrol sold at service stations totalled 5.791 million barrels last year. A barrel is about 157 litres.

Although this was higher than the 5.505 million barrels sold in 2006, the volume was less than 2005's 5.916 million.

This was in spite of the fact that the car population here grew to 514,685 last year - 17.5 per cent more than in 2005.