Fuel costs slashed twice in a week

A PETROL price war has meant the cost of filling up a typical family car has fallen by as much as £2.20 in just three days.

Supermarkets yesterday announced that they were cutting fuel prices for the second time this week, as wholesale costs continued to fall.

Asda will today reduce the price of diesel by up to 3p a litre and petrol by up to 1p at its 304 filling stations.

Both fuels will be cut by up to 2p a litre at Morrisons and Sainsbury’s.

Only on Wednesday, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco reduced the cost of diesel by 2p a litre and petrol by 1p at all of their filling stations.

A drop in the price of oil and a jump in the value of the pound has reduced the wholesale cost of fuel – priced in US dol- lars – for retailers. But average pump prices for unleaded and diesel both increased by more than 1p a litre across forecourts last month, RAC analysis found. Unleaded rose to £1.19 a litre, while diesel reached £1.21.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: ‘It’s great to see the supermarkets responding to our call to pass on wholesale fuel price savings to motorists at the pumps. This will help to reduce the cost of driving for millions by taking the average price of petrol down from 118p a litre to around 116p – a price last seen in December.’

Oil prices hovered at near five-month lows yesterday morning, with Brent crude falling below 47 dollars per barrel (£36) amid fears over a global glut.