The price of diesel on British fuel station forecourts has dipped below £1 per litre as the falling oil price makes filling a tank the cheapest in years for Britain’s 11 million diesel drivers.
Supermarket chain Morrisons announced on Sunday that it had cut the price of diesel to 99.7p per litre, pricing it at under a pound for the first time since May 2009. Rivals Asda and Tesco are set to match the price on Monday.
Drivers of petrol cars have been enjoying sub-£1 prices since before Christmas, as the further fall in the price of crude oil filtered through to the pumps.
The RAC said the move was overdue, having claimed for some weeks that wholesale savings were not being passed on to drivers as the price of a barrel of Brent Crude fell below $40 and arguing that cuts to diesel prices in particular should have been faster and far more dramatic.
RAC Fuel Watch spokesman Pete Williams said: “The wholesale price of diesel has been around two pence cheaper than the wholesale price of petrol since a couple of weeks before Christmas so we should have seen these cuts earlier and that is what the RAC has been calling for.
Williams said it was great news for consumers and motorists, but also for the UK economy. He said: “It will also benefit UK business which runs on diesel and should be a further stimulus to the economy.”
He added: “Saudi Arabia has also reiterated its intention not to cut oil production so the world will continue to be awash with oil as demand is also down, suggesting that sustained lower petrol and diesel prices are going to be around for much of 2016.”
The tax take that goes to the Treasury in fuel duty and VAT accounts for around 75% of the overall cost, limiting the effect of the swinging commodity price. However, with some predicting oil could fall as far as $20 a barrel this year, some forecast drivers could be paying as little as 90p per litre for fuel.
Bryan Burger, petrol retail director at Morrisons, said the new price would mean diesel car drivers would be saving £20 when filling up their tank, compared with the peak in prices from 2012. He added: “If oil prices continue to fall then we remain ready to cut the price of diesel and unleaded.”
Tesco will match the price of 99.7 per litre from Monday across its 500 filling stations, and promised to continue to review the price of diesel as the oil price moved. Asda, which claimed to be the first mover on cutting petrol to below £1 in November, said it was cutting 3p from a litre of diesel to a maximum 99.7p at its 279 filling stations.
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