Motorists flock for cut-price fuel

Oct 24 2008 by Marc McLean, Lennox Herald

HERE’S a sight Dumbarton motorists have been waiting a long time for!

Petrol prices finally fell below £1 per litre last Wednesday as Morrisons slashed its charges.

The supermarket chain was the first in the UK to make the price of unleaded petrol 99.9p at all of its 287 forecourts across the country.

With diesel also dropping to 111.9p per litre, drivers raced to the pumps at the Dumbarton petrol station.

Petrol stations including Glen’s Garage in Alexandria, BP in Jamestown, SMS in Dumbarton, and Esso and Shell in Milton, all quickly followed suit in reducing unleaded to 99.9p.

On Monday, Morrison’s led the way again by cutting unleaded and diesel by a further 2p per litre.

It is the first time since last December that motorists have paid under £1 for a litre of unleaded.

Marc Bolland, chief executive of Morrisons, said: “We’re taking the lead again in cutting fuel prices and taking unleaded back below a pound a litre. This is strong support for the millions of motorists that are served at our forecourts.

“The price of crude has fallen in recent days and, yet again, we’re passing this on to our customers before anyone else.

“It shows that we’re absolutely committed to delivering real value for all of our customers – whether they’re shopping in our stores or filling up at our forecourts.”

Asda, although it doesn’t have a petrol station in the area, dropped the price of unleaded to 99.9p and diesel to 110.9p across the country last Thursday.

Brendan McLoughlin, founder of PetrolPrices.com, said: “With the doom and gloom in the economy at the moment, this is exactly the sort of news motorists need. The price cuts by Asda and Morrisons should force other retailers to lower their prices too, meaning we could see falling prices right across the country over the next few weeks.

“Motorists can encourage other retailers to follow suit by shopping around online to avoid the highest priced stations. However, lower petrol prices are dependent on low oil prices, so if the banking crisis forces investors towards commodities, we could see both the price of oil and petrol picking up again.”

The price cuts are a result of falling oil prices, which have dropped from highs near $147 a barrel to below $75. Fears of a world recession and reduced demand are thought to be driving falling oil prices.