August 15, 2011 1.58 pm This story is over 156 months old

Asda slashes fuel prices twice in a week

Fuel wars: Shortly after Tesco’s claim of cheaper fuel in Lincoln, Asda have struck back today with even lower prices — ‘Every Little Helps’

Drivers in Lincoln will see further reductions in fuel prices as Asda announced it will cut prices by up to 2p per litre from Tuesday, August 16.

The response to the news that Tesco announced a cut in its prices to make it the cheapest place to buy fuel in the city is the latest development in what seems to be an emerging price war for Lincoln’s fuel providers.

The 2p per litre cut at Asda filling stations brings their price cap down to 130.7 p per litre for unleaded and 134.7p per litre for diesel.

This means that at all 188 of its filling stations nationwide customers will not be charged more than the capped amount for filling up.

A 2p per litre decrease could mean that Asda is more than a penny cheaper per litre than Tesco’s proposed drop to 131.9p and less than current prices at Sainsbury’s (132.9p) and Morrisons (133.8p).

Asda’s head of petrol trading, Jeremy Walton has raised the issue that not all of Asda’s competitors issues a cap in their prices, claiming that rival retailers charge up to 6p per litre more in some parts of the country.

“Our price cuts are the same across the country meaning that no-one will pay a premium for their petrol, unlike other retailers which rely on high prices at filling stations with no local competition to fund their price drops elsewhere,” said Watson.

Despite the supermarket price war being good for the public, traders in Lincoln who often cannot use these filling stations due to reasons such as the size of their vehicles, have highlighted that there is a wider issue with the cost of fuel.

Director of S and P Removals in Lincoln, Steve McDowell, has a number of company vehicles which he is forced to fill up at stations such as Shell and Texico and, despite having a fuel card, only saves a small amount.

McDowell said: “The country relies on lorries and trucking companies to keep it running yet when the price of diesel goes up we are just expected to absorb the cost as we can’t get away with raising our prices.

“While it is easy to look at how much money the oil companies are making let’s not forget that about 60% of the cost is tax.”