Diesel Prices Lower Than Petrol In UK After More Than A Decade

For the first time in 15 years, the price of diesel has gone down below petrol at some of the supermarkets in the U.K., after retailers were attacked for ripping off British diesel drives. However, the change was too long in coming, said the Automobile Association (AA), a British motoring association.

First Morrisons announced a two-percent price cut per litre and was soon followed by Sainsbury, Tesco and Asda announcing their own price cuts. According to analysis by the Experian Catalyst, this price cut of diesel, which is lower than petrol was only witnessed once in 2001.

One of the spokespersons of the association welcomed the move, as it would largely help tradesmen who are not liable to get fuel cards discounts. According to the AA, compared to petrol, diesel has been over charged about AU$ 8.45 to AU$ 12.68 starting from April and continued until the news of price cuts came along. It has been also reported that during the weekend, diesel was priced at AU$2.50 per litre whereas petrol was AU$2.47.

Lower wholesale diesel rate would pass on savings, reported petrol director for Morrisons, Mark Todd. He also said the move would prove to be a milestone in motoring and highly beneficial for young drivers. However, only a few Morrissons fuel station would sell diesel at a higher price than unleaded because of the local competition. The supermarkets also confirmed that not all diesel prices would go down as pump prices depend on the distance from oil refineries and terminals.

Asda announced that drivers would no longer pay more than AU$2.38 per litre in any of its 272 filling stations. Incase of Asda and Sainbury , the price changes across all the filling stations came into effect on Tuesday whereas Tesco implemented it yesterday noon, the Belfast Telegraph reported.

According to BBC UK, James Challinor, the research director at Wood Mackenzie, said that the prices of diesel and petrol fell as crude oil became cheaper. However, diesel prices have fallen faster than petrol and this could be partly attributed to the US demand of petrol, he said. Meanwhile, RAC reported that the sudden fall in the prices of diesel after 15 years has been due to an increased supply of diesel from outside the U.K.

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