Diesel dips below £1.20 a litre for the first time in 2 YEARS as ASDA cuts fuel prices

Asda has announced a fresh new price cut of 2 pence per litre on petrol effective today. 

Motorists who brim their cars at the store’s forecourts will pay no more than 116.7p for a litre of unleaded and 118.7p for diesel.

This not only means that fuel as a whole is now at its lowest price since April 2019, but it also marks the first time diesel has dipped below the £1.20 a litre mark for almost two years.

Drivers filling up at any of the supermarket’s 322 UK petrol stations will be paying up to 9p a litre less for fuel than they were at the start of January following two previous cuts before today’s in response to declining wholesale costs. 

The latest reduction came on 4 February, when Asda initiated a price war between superstores by slashing 4p off a litre of diesel and trimming 2p from petrol costs. 

Dave Tyrer, Asda’s senior fuel buyer, said: ‘Once again we’re pleased to be passing on wholesale cost reductions to customers. 

‘It will be a welcomed boost, especially to diesel drivers who are seeing some of the lowest fuel prices since 2018.

‘Anybody filling up at Asda will pay no more than 116.7ppl on unleaded and 118.7ppl on diesel regardless of where they live.’ 

According to the AA, fuel retailers have been pocketing surplus funds from cheaper oil and wholesale costs for weeks.

And while it commended Asda for taking the lead and being the first to pass on savings to motorists, it blasted the wider industry for profiting from hard-pressed drivers up and down the country. 

Luke Bodset, the fuel price spokesman for the motoring group said: ‘Mid-February saw the chunk of the petrol pump price that is directly attributable to the fuel trade grow to its biggest in more than a year. 

‘Stripping out tax and wholesale costs – from two weeks before to allow changes to reach pumps fully – left an 11p surplus for retailers and suppliers – around 2p up on the same time last year.

‘This has come as too many forecourts held on to savings from lower wholesale costs feeding through to their pumps. 

‘Even when Asda announced its second price cut of the year, a 3p-a-litre reduction on Wednesday 29 January, it took until the following Monday for the UK average to drop just a penny as other retailers squeezed another weekend’s worth of high prices out of consumers.’

The remaining big four supermarkets – Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco – are now expected to match the cuts.

As has been the case already this year, these are not likely to come on the same day as Asda announced their reduction, meaning motorists may have to wait until later in the week to benefit from cheaper pump prices depending on the closest fuel retailer to them.