Motorists benefit as Asda price cut fuels forecourt petrol war

Published on Monday 27 June 2011 17:26

SUPERMARKET giant Asda sparked another battle in the forecourt fuel price war yesterday by announcing plans to cut a further 2p a litre off the cost of its petrol and diesel.

The company said that from this morning drivers filling up at Asda will pay no more than 128.7p a litre for petrol and no more than 132.7p a litre for diesel. The reduction follows a 3p cut in fuel costs by Asda and other supermarkets last week, after a fall in the international price of oil.

And Sainsbury's yesterday announced it will offer customers 10p off every litre of fuel when they spend 60 or more in-store in a promotion that will run from tomorrow until Sunday.

Andy Peake, Asda's petrol director, said: "Customers shouldn't have to buy into gimmicks and promotions to benefit from cheaper petrol - no-one should have to pay a premium on food to lower the cost of fuel.

"Once again, Asda is leading the way in saving drivers money and, in only 72 hours, we've taken up to 5p a litre off the cost of filling up."

Sainsbury's group commercial director Mike Coupe said the cut-price forecourt deal would "help alleviate some of the pressure and help reduce the weekly fuel bill" for its customers.

The latest round of cuts was announced as the price of Brent crude - the benchmark North Sea oil price index - fell to $106 a barrel, its lowest price since January.

The price of oil on the world's markets has fallen dramatically in the wake of the International Energy Agency's announcement that it will release 60 million barrels of government-owned oil stocks to help reduce global prices.

The Automobile Association claimed earlier this month that drivers were being "ripped off" as previous oil price falls had not been passed on to motorists.

But Neil Greig, the Scotland-based policy and research director of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, said: "Any cut in prices is good news and the best thing about this particular week has been the speed at which the big supermarkets have recognised a big fall in the cost of crude oil and have passed that on right away.

"There have been criticisms in the past that when the price of crude goes up the price of petrol at the pumps goes up very quickly, but when it comes down it doesn't seem to track down so quickly.

"But the good thing is that this time we had this oil released on to the market, the price went down and we have got an immediate influence on the forecourt., And there's nothing like a bit of competition to get prices to come down even further."