Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury's cut fuel prices as wholesale costs fall

Three supermarkets have announced fuel price cuts amid a fall in wholesale costs.
Prices are on their way downPrices are on their way down
Prices are on their way down

Three supermarkets have announced fuel price cuts amid a fall in wholesale costs.

Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury's are reducing the cost of diesel by 2p per litre and unleaded by 1p at all of their filling stations.

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A drop in the price of oil and a jump in the value of the pound has reduced the wholesale cost of fuel for retailers.

Average pump prices for unleaded and diesel both increased by more than 1p per litre across forecourts last month, RAC analysis found.

Unleaded rose to £1.19 per litre, while diesel reached £1.21.

However, the price of a barrel of oil fell from a mid-month high of 55 US dollars (£43) to 49 dollars (£38) on April 27.

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This caused the wholesale price of petrol to end April 3.5p lower than the start of the month, with diesel dropping by 2.5p.

Roger Fogg, services director at Morrisons, which was the first supermarket to announce a price cut, said: "We are again bringing prices down quickly and we hope that this move will help motorists' budgets stretch a little further."

But RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams claimed there is "scope for them to go deeper".

He said: "It would be good if they surprised motorists with a bullish 3p-a-litre cut.

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"This is long overdue as our April Fuel Watch figures indicate that prices should be coming down as we saw the wholesale price of petrol and diesel fall during last month by around 3p a litre."

At the end of April it cost an average of £65.37 to fill up a 55-litre petrol car, while the diesel equivalent was £66.29.

Mr Williams added: "Motorists need to be able to trust retailers to be transparent when they are benefiting from significant savings in the wholesale price.

"It is time to do the right thing and drop prices - otherwise they could be accused of rocket and feather pricing."