Three of the UK’s largest supermarket chains have cut fuel prices at their store forecourts today following a large drop in the wholesale costs over the past week.
AsdaAsda has slashed the price of unleaded petrol and diesel by up to 2p per litre at its 188 filling stations across Britain, and pledged that its customers will not pay more than 132.7p per cent litre for unleaded and 136.7p per litre for diesel.
Morrisons has taken 2p off unleaded and 1p off diesel at most of its 296 forecourts, while prices at “the majority” of Tesco’s filling stations have dropped by 1p per litre on both unleaded and diesel fuel.
The latest cuts mean supermarket fuel prices are now below the national average, which last night was 136.5p for petrol and 140.6p for diesel.
Motoring association the AA welcomed the move but warned that stock market speculators could quickly drive the price of oil back up, as they did last month.
Paul Watters, head of public affairs at the AA, said: “We thought that the supermarkets would be cautious about launching a price war after late June’s attempt.”
“Although petrol fell 1.4p and diesel 1.3p over the weekend of June 25 and 26, stock market speculators set them on the rise again 10 days later with a $5 increase in the oil price on July 7. Asda’s move today is therefore particularly welcome.”
He added: “The AA says drivers deserve a longer respite from near-record fuel prices during the holiday period, but nobody should underestimate the ability of so-called ‘sentiment’ in the commodity markets to drive prices back up again.”
